'NATO will not get involved militarily in Ukraine': Alliance's Deputy Secretary General

On the latest mobilisation of Russian troops and weapons in Ukraine and Belarus, Geoana described the movements as "suspicious and very unusual". "We are seeing a further mobilisation of Russian military presence in and around Ukraine, in Belarus, in a suspicious and very unusual way. Of course you do not know the real intentions of President Putin and what he will decide or not. But we are seeing with growing concern, further mobilisation of Russian presence in and around Ukraine," he said.

On Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand that NATO rule out Ukraine ever joining the military alliance, the Deputy Secretary General told FRANCE 24: "Nobody says that Ukraine will join NATO any time soon. Ukraine has lots of things to reform domestically. And also we need NATO to have consensus – today we don't have consensus for eventual membership of Ukraine into NATO. But having said that, no third party has a veto right on a decision that is sovereign of the country, and the organisation they want to join. So it's up to us."

Finally, after Moscow accused the United States of trying to incite a war by moving NATO troops "to Russia's doorstep", Geoana contested that it's Russia's own actions that have pushed NATO to deploy troops and weapons in the region: "NATO didn't have any military presence in the Eastern flank before 2014, after the illegal annexation of Crimea. [Russia] want to have Ukraine in their sphere of influence. What's the result of the continuous war in the Donbas and the annexation of Crimea and the threat today against Ukraine? Ten years ago, only 20 percent of Ukrainian people wanted to join NATO and the EU, today we have 60-something percent. So in a way we hope that Russia will realise that they get the