Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin's calls for guarantees on Ukraine's non-membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are unlawful, the UNIAN news agency reported.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Kuleba said this to journalists after participating in a meeting of the North Atlantic Council of NATO and bilateral talks in Riga. The head of the Ukrainian diplomacy called Putin's calls for Russia to receive guarantees that NATO will not expand to the east "unjustified."

According to Kuleba, Moscow cannot interfere with Ukraine's rapprochement with the Alliance and has no say in the relevant discussions.

"Any Russian proposals to discuss with NATO, the United States or other countries any so-called guarantees that the Alliance will not expand to the East are unlawful," Kuleba stressed.

The foreign minister also reiterated Ukraine's determination to continue large-scale reforms to transform the Ukrainian security and defense sector in line with NATO standards. He also said that NATO allies positively assess Ukraine's progress in reforms.

We shall remind you that on the previous day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow, "in dialogue with the United States and its allies", would seek to work out some "specific agreements that would rule out any further NATO advances to the east" and the deployment of weapons systems in the immediate vicinity of Russian territory, which Moscow considers threatening.