EU Foreign Policy Chief Admits Possibility NATO Failed to Keep Promises to Russia

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - NATO could have promised Russia in the past but failed not to expand eastward, but it is still not an excuse for Moscow's escalation of tensions around Ukraine today, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

The official noted that many people, including his friends, justify the conflict in Ukraine, arguing that NATO and the European Union did not keep their promises to Russia.

"It is possible. It is history. None of it justifies present events," Borrell said at an event in Madrid.

Russia has been a consistent critic of NATO’s expansion following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying in April that it has nothing to do with the fulfillment of statutory goals and is geared toward strengthening and perpetuating the unipolar world. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in early April that further expansion of the alliance eastward was aggressive in nature and would not make Europe more secure.

On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine responding to calls for help from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, which have been suffering from an eight-year-long war, waged by Kiev.