MOSCOW, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will bring the alliance's military infrastructure closer to the Russian borders and will not promote security and stability in Europe, a Kremlin spokesman said Monday.
Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has deeply concerned over NATO's eastward expansion of its military infrastructure towards the Russian borders, an action that NATO would continue to take.
This move, he said, would not contribute to strengthening security and stability in Europe.
The spokesman's remarks came after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier on Monday that NATO has accepted Ukraine's proposal to start talks on the establishment of the Membership Action Plan, Russian news agency Sputnik reported.
Poroshenko said on Thursday that he had signed the law on the resumption of the process for Ukraine to join NATO.
He pledged to intensify efforts on reforming his country's security and defence sectors to meet criteria for joining the alliance.
In 2003, Ukraine declared the start of the process towards NATO membership, but revoked the policy in 2010, declaring non-aligned status.
Shortly after the conflict between government troops and rebels broke out in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, the Ukrainian parliament abandoned the country's non-aligned status, paving the way for it to join the military bloc.
Stoltenberg started to pay a visit to Ukraine Sunday and co-chaired the Ukraine-NATO Council meeting with Poroshenko. The two sides had a discussion on NATO's facilitating the implementation of the reforms in Ukraine's defense and security.
