WASHINGTON - When attending Kyiv summit on April 27, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker advised Ukrainian leadership not to talk publicly about Ukraine's NATO aspirations to not heighten tensions.
“In an interview with a small group of reporters on his flight back from the Ukrainian capital, Mr. Juncker said he had advised the country’s President Petro Poroshenko to ease tensions by avoiding comments on a possible bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Wall Street Journal quotes Juncker as saying.
However, his advice received “short shrift”, he said.
Besides, Juncker said that Ukrainian leadership has expressed real fears on Monday about Russia’s next steps.
“They [Ukrainian senior officials] were explaining in the more private meetings we had, they are highly alerted about Russia—more alerted than I thought they would be. Because they are considering that Russia is preparing a broad attack on the Ukrainian territory,” Juncker said adding, however, he had no specific information that backed up Kyiv’s concerns and cautioned against allowing “self-fulfilling prophecies” to take hold.
