MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Ukraine will never be able to join NATO as the alliance has set an impossible condition for the Kiev regime, that is, defeat Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing.

The Russian diplomat referred to a recent demand voiced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"NATO is aware that nobody will ever defeat Russia," Zakharova said. "No Stoltenberg will say that, but maybe one day <…> they might admit why they took such a risky venture in the first place," she argued.

As regards the chances of Ukraine joining the European Union, Zakharova continued, the bloc takes the same approach as the North Atlantic Alliance. "The European Union has morphed into an economic arm of NATO. <…> And they have also set the price they expect the Ukrainian people to pay [for their EU membership] - using the Kiev regime to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia with Western money," she concluded.