UNIAN

"We have canceled that shameful non-alignment status, and those who argued and called for non-aligned status should now bear responsibility, because they, along with those who allowed the collapse of the armed forces, [caused the] weakening of the country’s security to a critical level, for which the entire state is now paying the price," Poroshenko said.

He said that "the aggressor did not need the Crimea, the aggressor has one-sixth of the earth's land surface.... Today we have reason to believe that the aggressor needs all of Ukraine, [to be] weak, destabilized, with discredited European values and ideas, and with a discredited people."

As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 1, 2010 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a law establishing the principle of non-alignment, envisaging the non-participation of Ukraine in any military and political alliances, in particular, non-membership of NATO, at the initiative of the then president, Viktor Yanukovych.

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In December 2014, 10 months after Yanukovych had been ousted from power by mass public demonstrations, the Ukrainian parliament canceled the non-aligned status of Ukraine, with the decision being supported by 303 votes.