The Russian Orthodox Church is also against Ukraine's accession to NATO

The head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev said it in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Religiyna Pravda reports.

In these negotiations, Russia insisted that NATO will not accept new members and will abandon the intention voiced at the Bucharest Summit in 2008 to accept Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, abandon the logistical development of countries that joined the alliance after 1997, and will not deploy weapons capable of hitting targets on Russian territory.

“It is quite natural that Russia insists on certain security guarantees so that NATO weapons are not placed directly at its borders and are not directed at Russian cities," Metropolitan Hilarion stressed. — If it is possible to reach an understanding on this point at the next stages of negotiations, this in itself will give rise to optimism. It is too early to talk about the results because there are no results as such, but an important process has begun that will continue, and we hope that it will lead to success.”