Ukraine's newly appointed Foreign Minister Petro Poroshenko has called into question the legitimacy of possible measures to deploy facilities of Washington's new missile defense architecture on Ukrainian territory.
“I think that it is unconstitutional,” Poroshenko said.
“I do not think that it is a challenge,” the foreign minister said,
referring to U.S. media reports that Washington is allegedly studying
the possibility of placing a radar station in Ukraine as part of a new
missile defense architecture in Europe.
Deploying any foreign military bases in Ukrainian territory runs counter to the country’s national legislation, Poroshenko said.
“The Constitution of Ukraine does not allow the presence of any military bases in the territory of Ukraine,” he added.
U.S. media outlets said earlier, citing U.S. Deputy Defense
Secretary Alexander Vershbow that he added Ukraine to the list of
possible sites for deploying missile attack early warning radars.
Vershbow reportedly said that Ukrainian officials appeared interested.
It is unclear from these reports whether Vershbow’s position on Ukraine
reflects the official stance of the Barack Obama administration or is
his personal opinion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had already labeled this statement as “extravagant and rather unexpected.”
