Fragile peace talks aimed at ending the civil conflict between the government and rebels in Ukraine resumed on Wednesday, a day after Kiev angered Moscow by taking a historic step toward NATO.

The talks in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, brought together envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Progress in the peace efforts had been in doubt for more than two weeks, and Tuesday's vote by the Ukrainian Parliament to drop the country's nonaligned status put further pressure on the delicate process.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted to the vote by demanding that the ex-Soviet state "put an end to confrontation" and stop adopting "absolutely counterproductive" measures.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said: "In essence, an application for NATO membership will turn Ukraine into a potential military opponent for Russia."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had vowed to put Ukraine under Western military protection after winning an election in February.

Ukraine assumed de facto neutrality under strong Russian pressure in 2010. It had sought NATO membership in the early post-Soviet era but was never viewed as a serious candidate.

The situation in Kiev upset Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to enlist Ukraine in a new bloc he was forging in order to counterbalance NATO and the European Union.

Moscow had set Kiev's exclusion from all military unions as a condition for any deal on ending the unrest that has killed 4,700 in the eastern Ukrainian rust belt in the past eight months.

Medvedev warned that Ukraine's rejection of neutrality and a new Russian sanctions law that US President Barack Obama signed on Friday "will both have very negative consequences".

"And our country will have to respond to them," he said.

AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 12/25/2014 page11)