NATO Spring Session: Ukraine Attendance Puts Minsk Commitment Into Question

Senior Ukrainian officials will be present at the Parliamentary Assembly (PA) Spring Session, where the sensitive issue of western relations with Russia is to be discussed further.

NATO — a military alliance comprising 28 countries from across Europe and North America — has been highly critical of Russia's actions in regards to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of aggressively interfering with Kiev's internal politics.

"Today, our security and the values we believe in are being tested by Russia's revisionism and recklessness," US Congressman Michael Turner, the NATO PA President, said. 

"NATO governments [have] agreed a range of decisive measures to respond to Russia's challenge and many of our discussions at this Spring Session will focus on how we can ensure that our commitments are met."

Both NATO and Kiev have accused Russia of sending in troops to actively fight alongside separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, however Moscow has denied the allegations, and has accused NATO of playing a destabilizing role in the country's affairs. 

NATO Involvement in Ukraine 'Destructive'

The attendance of Kiev officials in the NATO Spring Session has also thrown into question the Ukrainian government's commitment to adhering to the second round of the Minsk peace agreements, aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the conflict and a peaceful solution between eastern Ukrainian separatist groups and Kiev forces.

The second of the Minsk agreements, negotiated in February by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France and the self-proclaimed People's Republic's of Donetsk and Lugansk, called for an immediate ceasefire from forces on both sides of the conflict, as well as other measures aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the situation in the Donbass.

Despite the signing of the agreement, conflict has not stopped in the region, with ferocious fighting experienced in key strategic locations, as both sides blame each other for breaking the ceasefire.

As the conflict continues, Russian officials, who believe NATO's actions are acting as destabilizing factors, have criticized Kiev's close relationship with the alliance, arguing that it is counterproductive to the peace process.

Hitting back at NATO's claims that Russia is acting inappropriately to maintain influence in Eastern Europe, officials in Moscow say that the US-led NATO alliance is, in fact, acting aggressively with its own expansionist aims.

Moscow has cited NATO building up its military presence in Eastern Europe — with new bases being set up in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria — as an overtly aggressive move aimed at extending NATO's, and in turn the US' influence in the region.

Aleksandr Grushko, Russia's envoy to NATO said the alliance's involvement in the Ukrainian conflict was "destructive" to the overall peace process, and earlier this year accused NATO countries of supplying Kiev forces with lethal weapons.

"They are telling us in NATO that they aren't supplying anything, that lethal weapons are not supplied [to Ukraine]… that NATO has no [standard] arms and all weapons are national and there are no NATO systems as such. In reality this is not true." 

Grushko also accused the bloc of inciting further conflict in eastern Ukraine and not promoting a diplomatic ending to the crisis.

"In reality, the West is effectively encouraging the war party to continue warfare against its own people."

The NATO PA, held in Budapest, starts on Friday and will continue until Monday.