REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would respond "negatively" if NATO were to add either Ukraine or Georgia to the alliance.

Read alsoPoroshenko in Brussels: No country, even Russia will manage to block Ukraine's accession to NATO

"For us, well, it's a direct and immediate threat for our national security…moving this NATO infrastructure towards our borders would be a threat, and…the reaction would be extremely negative," Putin said in an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace.

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As UNIAN reported earlier, NATO Heads of State and Government on July 12 called on the Russian Federation, as a party to the Minsk agreements, to withdraw heavy weapons from Donbas and all militant formations under its control.

Moreover, the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels on July 11, 2018, confirmed NATO stands by its decisions on Ukraine taken at the 2008 Bucharest Summit and subsequent summits.