NATO says won’t give military aid to Ukraine

Members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have not yet decided to meet Ukraine’s demand for intelligence and equipment aid, the Western military alliance says.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a security conference in Slovakia on Thursday that such issues should be discussed with member states on a bilateral basis.

According to Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia, Kiev had asked NATO in March to provide the country with technical equipment, including radar and border equipment.

“Let me remind you that NATO does not possess equipment, NATO does not have an intelligence service as an organization. We are dependent on individual allies,” Rasmussen said, adding, “So the question about equipment, intelligence cooperation, etc. – that’s the issue that should be addressed at the bilateral level between Ukraine and individual allies.”

The Ukrainian crisis erupted last November when the country’s then president, Viktor Yanukovych, refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

The refusal triggered months of unrest and clashes with the police, which finally led to the ouster of Yanukovych on February 23. He then travelled to Russia, where he was given sanctuary.

Ukraine has experienced a fresh wave of unrest since Crimea declared independence from Kiev on March 17 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum in which nearly 97 percent of the participants voted in favor of the move.