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Ukraine's NATO Referendum 'Marketing' Move Designed to Impress West - DPR

© Sputnik / Stringer / Go to the mediabankIndependence Square in Kiev. (File)
Independence Square in Kiev. (File) - Sputnik International
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A referendum on Ukraine's accession to NATO is a "marketing" move of Kiev aimed at making an impression on its western partners, Natalya Nikonorova, the acting foreign minister of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR) told Sputnik on Friday.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talk in a helicopter on the way to a military training ground outside Lviv, western Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 21, 2015 - Sputnik International
This is the 'Main Risk' Ukraine's Possible Membership in NATO May Entail
DONETSK (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he intended to hold a referendum on the country's accession to NATO.

"The issue of NATO membership has been repeatedly raised by Kiev, but every time it was an action in the sphere of marketing directed at western partners, because the very fact of Ukraine's referendum on NATO accession would mean an official refusal of Donbas," Nikonorova said.

She added that the residents of the Donbass' self-proclaimed republics would not be able to participate in such the vote and the NATO Charter involved a provision that a country, which could not control its borders, could not join the alliance.

Ukraine has cooperated with the Alliance for years. Kiev has intensified its efforts to join NATO following the shift of power in 2014 and has already canceled its non-aligned status.

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