BRUSSELS, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union is unlikely to provide Ukraine with military equipment, while NATO is far more likely to send military aid to Kiev, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said Saturday.
“We need militarily support and send military materials to Ukraine,” she said.
Grybauskaite stressed that the European Union is more up to economic sanctions, rather than weaponry and military assistance.
On Friday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that next week the alliance would “take decisions as to how we will enhance our cooperation with Ukraine” including providing financial assistance for logistics, command and control, cyber defense and aid to military personnel.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk introduced Friday a legislation to the country’s parliament to drop its “non-aligned bloc” status and renew its path to becoming a member of NATO. The call comes only days after the first face to face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko in Belarus to discuss possible solutions to the violence and unrest in east Ukraine.
NATO has repeatedly pledged its support to Ukraine, and stepped up its presence in Eastern Europe.
In 2008, NATO declined Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance’s Membership Action Plan.
According to NATO’s charter, a country cannot join the alliance if it has unresolved territorial disputes. Ukraine has never recognized Crimea as part of the Russian Federation.
