Moscow: Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the major cause of the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis, TASS News Agency reported.

He asserted that the Ukrainian crisis has been largely exacerbated by the actions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).Instances like those witnessed in Kosovo, Libya, and Afghanistan serve as examples.

In an interview with TASS, the Chinese Ambassador to Russia said, "For more than 30 years, NATO has been fueling tensions everywhere, breaking stability and encouraging separatism, like it was in Kosovo, Libya, and Afghanistan. Five eastward expansions seriously impacted the post-Cold War order and security in Europe and were the key cause of the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis."

He further stated, "Being a Cold War relic, NATO should have ceased to exist when the Cold War ended."

However, it goes on prospering being fed by unleashing wars and instigating conflicts. Facts show that wherever NATO extends its diabolic hands, there will be no peace and people will be dying, Zhang added.

Notably, the Russia-Ukraine war started when the latter country offered a bid for NATO membership and denied the bid. Russia launched its special military operation on February 24, 2022, after recognising the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as "independent republics."

Russia has since continued to maintain that the aim of its operations has been to "demilitarize" and "de-nazify" the country.

Earlier the United States and other NATO countries have said it is impossible to admit Ukraine now because of the ongoing war.

In July, US President Joe Biden said that he doesn't think Ukraine is ready for NATO membership and added that NATO is a process that takes some time to meet all qualifications, from democratization to a whole range of other issues.

"I don't think it (Ukraine) is ready for membership in NATO," the US President said in an interview when asked about Ukraine's NATO membership, reported CNN.