PRESS RELEASE

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Poroshenko Wants Special Status with NATO, Now

Sept. 25, 2016 (EIRNS)—The Bulgarian news website Novinite reported, yesterday, that Ukraine has filed a "special partnership" request with NATO, state news agency UNIAN has said. The document was sent in an official letter from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, before a Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting in Brussels. If granted, this would give Ukraine a status with NATO equal to that of Finland and Sweden.

This is a real provocation which can only have the effect of sabotaging the Minsk II agreement in the Donbass region of southeast Ukraine. There is widespread agreement among observers on both sides that Poroshenko can’t implement the Minsk agreements anyway, because the special status provision for Luhansk and Donetsk are virulently opposed by the armed neo-Nazi groups that Poroshenko relies on to keep in power. "Special partnership" status with NATO, therefore, appears to be his alternative.