NATO chief rejects Russia demand to deny Ukraine entry

BSS :
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday rejected Russia’s call for the West to withdraw its invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance.
“NATO’s relationship with Ukraine is going to be decided by the 30 NATO allies and Ukraine-no one else,” Stoltenberg said, at a joint news conference with Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“We cannot accept that Russia is trying to re-establish a system where big powers like Russia have spheres of influence, where they can control or decide what other members can do.”
Earlier, Russia’s foreign ministry had said that NATO should formally scrap a 2008 declaration opening the door to Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics.
“In the fundamental interests of European security, it is necessary to officially disavow the decision of the 2008 NATO Bucharest summit that ‘Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members’,” it said.
Russian troops now occupy two breakaway regions of Georgia, and Moscow has annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region while allegedly supporting separatist rebels in the neighbouring Donbas.
In the past few weeks, Russia has moved around 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s border, sounding alarm bells in Washington and at NATO’s Brussels headquarters.