Borrell Says West Made Mistake in Promising Ukraine NATO Membership

“I am ready to admit that we made a number of mistakes and that we lost the possibility of Russia’s rapprochement with the West," he said in an interview with LCI TV channel.

"There are moments that we could do better, there are things that we proposed and then could not implement, such as, for example, the promise that Ukraine and Georgia will become part of NATO."

"I think it's a mistake to make promises that you can't keep,” Borrell added.

"Thus, we lost the opportunity to bring Russia closer to the West in order to deter it," he said.

Some of NATO's 30-member countries supply weapons, ammunition and other equipment to Ukraine, but NATO as an organization refused to do so. The organization announced that it will not launch any military action in support of Ukraine, which is a close partner but at the time has no clear prospect of joining.

EU leaders meeting in France on Thursday ruled out fulfilling Ukraine's demand for a fast-track integration with the bloc, as they discussed ways to help the country.

EU nations have been fully united in backing Ukraine's resistance, adopting unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia over the past two weeks. But leaders are divided on how fast Brussels could move to accept Ukraine as a member, and how swiftly the 27-nation bloc could sever energy ties with Moscow.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help from the heads of the Donbass republics.

He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to "demilitarize and denazify" the country.

Later he stated that one of Moscow's key demands was that Ukraine remain neutral.

As Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin had earlier stated, it is critical for Russia because it is the "minimum territorial barrier" the country needs to repel attacks from the West.