'Donkey's Tail': Russian MFA Spokeswoman Blasts McFaul for Lying About Ukraine NATO Admission

Earlier this week, McFaul participated in a Munk Debates event and was asked by a Harvard professor whether US officials lied to Kiev when they supported Ukraine's hope to join NATO. The former official's response turned out to be a simple "yes" before noting that this is how "the real world" works.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova took to Telegram on Saturday night to address a recent admission by former US Ambassador in Moscow Michael McFaul that saw the ex-official admit to lying about a prominent foreign policy issue.

The spokeswoman recalled the quote from the German classic fairytale "Town Musicians of Bremen" 1973 Soviet rendition "On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians" in which a band, disguised as foreign musicians, distracts the crowd, while a Troubadour rescues his sweetheart from the King's captivity and the two of them leave.

"And then the fashionable foreign pants fell off the donkey, and everyone saw an ordinary donkey's tail," Zakharova quoted from the 1970s-era audiobook. "In a few words about what happened to the former US ambassador to Russia McFaul during the interview."

Despite McFaul's remark that the promise to accept Ukraine in NATO was indeed a lie, the Ukrainian parliament - the Verkhovna Rada - voted to abandon the country's non-bloc status in 2014, officially stating that Kiev would seek a membership in the military alliance.

In February 2019, the parliament adopted amendments to the country's constitution, securing its course towards the European Union and NATO.

Still, experts emphasized that Ukraine could not claim membership in the military bloc in the coming decades, especially while issues of territorial integrity continued to exist for Ukraine and the conflict with the breakaway republics of Donbass continued.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin previously detailed in April that the possibility of Ukraine joining the alliance is not even being considered by officials. However, the Pentagon chief did stress that NATO would not abandon its "open door" policy. He did not rule out that in the future Kiev could try to join the organization again.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, has previously admitted that "Kiev has heard about open doors for years," but in reality the country cannot enter there.