Duma reacts to OSCE plans to prepare Ukraine for EU and NATO membership

Today, any attempts to talk about Ukraine's accession to the European Union (EU) and NATO are a continuation of fueling the conflict. This was stated by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Aleksey Chepa, on Thursday, 12 December, reacting to the plans of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to prepare Kiev for joining these structures.

Earlier, Czech diplomat Petr Maresh, who was appointed by a group of countries as special representative of the OSCE chairmanship in Ukraine, told Izvestiya that he would prepare Kiev for joining the EU and NATO, 360.ru reported.

At the same time, the Russian side was not informed about this appointment. The decision was made by 55 out of 57 countries, bypassing Russia and Belarus, RT reports.

"We have a categorical negative attitude [to the appearance of such a figure in the OSCE] and understand that this is, among other things, an attempt to continue dragging Ukraine into the conflict with promises that 'everything will be fine, we will accept you both in NATO and the European Union, and your life will be wonderful and amazing, you just fight Russia some more'." Today, even attempts to talk about this topic is in principle and continuation of the conflict, it is a violation of all norms," the deputy said in a conversation with Lenta.Ru.

Blocks of discord: the OSCE will start preparing Kyiv for EU and NATO accession

The appointment of a Czech diplomat to the post of Special Representative of the Chairmanship took place without Russia's consent

In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova emphasized that Maresh, stating plans to prepare Kiev for membership in the EU and NATO, intends to deepen the split in Europe, according to the website kp.ru.

She characterized the situation with Maresh's occupation of the post of OSCE special envoy as the appointment of "some person by whom it is unclear," aif.ru reported.

Earlier, on December 11, the governor of the Kherson Region, Volodymyr Saldo, said that Russia could not allow the presence of the NATO contingent in Ukraine even after the special operation was over. He pointed to a change in the rhetoric of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (his term of office expired on May 20), who now admits that the country will not join the North Atlantic Alliance until the conflict ends and instead demands the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine.

On December 5, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that in the current situation, the FRG would not send its troops to Ukraine. Poland, for its part, also ruled out the transfer of military forces to Ukraine.

At the same time, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said in December that the German peacekeeping contingent could be sent to Ukraine after the conflict is over. In addition, Politico reported the same month that French President Emmanuel Macron would discuss the deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk during their meeting in Warsaw on Thursday, December 12. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that sending a peacekeeping contingent to Ukraine would be perceived by Russia as participation of third countries in the conflict.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. At the time, Zelensky said that in fact the country is already in the alliance and meets its standards. The country applied for EU membership on February 28, 2022.