NEW DELHI: Russia reiterated that Ukraine’s potential membership in the US-led NATO alliance remains unacceptable to Moscow.

“For us, the threat is still the expansion of NATO,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing in Moscow. “NATO’s desire to pull Ukraine into its orbit remains a threat to us. This country’s membership of an aggressive military alliance that has declared Russia to be its target … is unacceptable to us.”

One of President Vladimir Putin’s key conditions for ending the war, Reuters has reported, is a Western guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO.

NATO leaders first stated in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become members. In 2019, Ukraine amended its constitution to formalise its goal of joining both NATO and the European Union.

However, US. President Donald Trump has said that earlier US backing for Ukraine’s NATO aspirations contributed to the outbreak of the war, adding that Kyiv would not receive membership.

A leaked 28-point US peace proposal for Ukraine includes a clause requiring Kyiv to amend its constitution to commit to non-alignment. Point 7 states: “Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future.”