OREANDA-NEWS. Ukraine's accession to NATO would be an extremely dangerous step to the wotls community, it would force Moscow to react, the alliance was warned of possible consequences, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Earlier, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, commenting on the prospects for Ukraine's membership in the alliance, said that third countries do not have the right to veto Ukraine's accession to NATO, while Washington supports Kiev in its aspirations.

Commenting on Austin's words, Rudenko noted that it is not the first time that such assessments have been heard from the lips of representatives of the alliance member states, and in general this approach is reflected in the charter documents.

"But we are still focusing not on the official position, but on concrete steps. We believe that this would be an extremely dangerous step that would force Russia to react accordingly," Rudenko said.

"Since these are negotiations between NATO and Ukraine, it is up to them to decide when and what is needed, but we kind of warned them, any step will have consequences. NATO knows our position on Ukraine," the high-ranking diplomat said.