The head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on foreign policy, the deputy head of the Kiev delegation to the contact group on Donbass, Oleksandr Merezhko, said that the events in Kazakhstan show the need to accelerate Ukraine’s accession to NATO
“The lesson from these events: it is necessary to accelerate Ukraine’s accession to NATO. However, unfortunately, the solution to this issue does not depend on our will”, – the MP said in an interview with Censor.net.
According to the Ukrainian politician, if Ukraine had not chosen the path of integration with NATO and the EU, it would have found itself in a similar situation to Kazakhstan.
“The main conclusion from the events in Kazakhstan is that it is very good that Ukraine did not join the Eurasian Economic Union in its time and chose the path of integration into the EU and joining NATO. Because otherwise we ended up in a similar situation to what Kazakhstan is in now. As [US diplomat] George Kennan used to say: Russia sees its neighbours as either enemies or vassals. Now the Russian Federation is trying to turn Kazakhstan into its vassal”, – Merezhko said.
However, he noted that Kiev should not interfere in the situation in Kazakhstan, as it is internal affair of this country.