MOSCOW, November 19 (Sputnik) — Russia needs "hundred-percent guarantees" that the West will not consider Ukraine's joining NATO, Russian President's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the BBC in an interview released Wednesday.
According to Peskov, no one has provided such guarantees to Russia, leading Moscow to take precautionary measures.
"We would like to hear that NATO would stop stop approaching the Russian borders and that NATO would stop trying to ruin the balance, the balance of power," Peskov told the BBC.
"But we, unfortunately, are not hearing these words, and that makes us nervous, as NATO is gradually coming closer to our borders," the official added.
Over the past few months, NATO has been placing additional forces in the Baltic region after a political crisis erupted in Ukraine in February and Crimea reunified with Russia in March.
In late August the Ukrainian government submitted a draft law to their parliament attempting to cancel non-bloc status, thereby jump starting a campaign to join NATO. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said that the country’s short-term goal is to obtain a status of the bloc's special partner.
