Ukraine seeks NATO membership

The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favour of dropping the country's non-aligned status, taking a major step toward North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO membership.
According to dpa, the legislation, which upset Russia, was submitted by President Petro Poroshenko. It passed with 303 votes to eight.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said afterwards that Kiev's plan "to give up a non-aligned status is counterproductive and only fuels the situation" in eastern Ukraine, the Tass news agency reported.
Ukraine adopted the status in 2010, when Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych held power.
He fled the country in March after mass demonstrations by pro-Western protesters. Russia annexed Crimea and backed an armed uprising in eastern Ukraine, prompting sanctions by the European Union and the United States.
Dropping the official policy of neutrality is seen as the first step on Ukraine's path to joining NATO. Poroshenko has promised to hold a referendum on membership once the country fulfills conditions set by the Western military alliance.
That has stoked Moscow's anger, with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev writing on Facebook Monday that Ukraine's push to join NATO "creates a potential military adversary of Russia."
Poroshenko's governing coalition took office earlier this month and agreed to work toward NATO membership, which remains a distant prospect. Poroshenko has said it could take at least six years to meet demands set by NATO and the European Union.
NATO said Tuesday that its "door is open" for Ukraine to join the alliance, if the country so wishes.
"Ukraine will become a member of NATO if it so requests and fulfils the standards and adheres to the necessary principles," a NATO source said on condition of anonymity, adding that a membership application would be assessed "in the same way we do with any candidate."
The 28-member alliance accuses Russia of fomenting one of the worst crises in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
More than 4,600 people have been killed in the fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces since fighting began in April. At least 1.1 million have fled the conflict zone, according to the UN.
The crisis has set off alarm bells in Eastern European countries like Poland and the Baltic states, which also host big Russian minorities.
Moscow has condemned the eastern expansion of NATO for not taking into account Russian interests, and has warned against a Western monopoly on security in Ukraine and the broader region.
Andrei Kelin, Moscow's permanent representative to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), called the vote in Kiev an "unfriendly step, particularly in the current situation."
In September, the OSCE helped broker a ceasefire between government troops and separatists. While violence has continued to flare-up since, optimism has grown in recent days that the crisis was calming as only isolated exchanges of fire had been reported.