Some more Russian reaction to Ukraine's tilt toward NATO from RFE/RL's news desk:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine's pursuit of NATO membership posed a danger to Europe.
"The very idea of Ukraine's efforts to join NATO are dangerous, not only for the Ukrainian people, because there is no unity over that issue, it is dangerous for European security," Lavrov said, speaking on state television on December 25.
Lavrov said the West was using Kyiv's plan to move toward joining NATO as a way to fuel confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich warned that NATO's possible expansion to the east would force Russia to take "adequate" measures in response.
On December 23, Ukraine's parliament voted to abandon the country's neutral "non-bloc" status and set a course for NATO membership.
That move was immediately denounced by Russia as "unfriendly."
(Interfax, Reuters)