Ukraine Nearing NATO Membership!

Ukraine's parliament voted Tuesday to abandon the country's nonaligned status, a step toward membership in NATO that Russia has sought to block.

The change was approved overwhelmingly, 303-9. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said before the vote that the move underscored his country's determination to pivot towards the West, Reuters reported.

"This will lead to integration in the European and the Euro-Atlantic space," he said in the capital, Kiev, according to Reuters.


The former Soviet republic had at one time pursued NATO membership, but in 2010, pressure from neighboring Russia prompted it to adopt nonaligned status, which barred it from joining military alliances.

President Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in February after months of street protests over his pro-Moscow tilt. The protests exploded into deadly violence, prompting Yanukovych to flee to Russia.
In May he was replaced by Western-leaning Petro Poroshenko, who initiated Tuesday's vote.
Poroshenko called last month for repealing Ukraine's non-aligned status, which failed to guarantee the country's security, Kyiv Post reported.

Last March, Russian troops moved into Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Russia subsequently annexed the region. Russia also has provided military and financial support for a rebellion by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The intervention in Ukraine is the latest attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to thwart former Soviet republics on his country's border from joining the Western military alliance, usatoday.com reports.

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