Ukraine could join NATO after overcoming Russia's resistance: Ukrainian political analyst

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'Situation in which Ukraine has found herself could be overcome by settling relations between NATO and Russia and overcoming Russia's resistance to Ukraine's joining the alliance,'' said on March 23 director of a Dnepropetrovsk regional branch of the National Institute for Strategic Studies Anatoly Shevtsov speaking at a round table ''US, NATO, and Russia: Context of Stability in Europe and National Security of Ukraine,'' REGNUM correspondent in Kiev reports.

Shevtsov argues that the goal could be reached through intensive and open consultations in the frameworks EU-Russia, CE-Russia, CE-Russia-NATO, and commission Ukraine-NATO, at which concrete problems posed by Russia could be discussed. He stressed that one of the problems is the one of bases in the Ukrainian territory, which the Constitution of Ukraine forbids to have. Shevtsov added that Russia today cooperates with many countries-members of NATO: with France (cosmodrome construction) and others, including the energy sphere. Shevtsov reminds that developments around deployment of ballistic missile defense elements in Europe reflect fundamental reasons of relations that formed today.

“Yesterday Supreme Rada adopted a basic document that recognizes a presence of a threat. As for a radar station in Check Republic, the problem is not real. The system is informational and presents no threat. Besides, it does not work all the time, it turns on when a missile is launched from Iran or some place else, it accompanies a missile complex. It can present no threat to Russia.”