NATO-Russia relations will not develop until Russia changes its policy towards Ukraine, a NATO official has said.

She said at a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that illegal annexation of Crimea was recognized as a problem not only by NATO.

Sudan, North Korea and several other countries recognized Crimea as part of Russia, but there were a number of resolutions that this is a common problem, and not just a problem for NATO. The alliance and the member states will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia, this problem will remain in our relations. There were a number of sanctions imposed by a number of institutions, the EU, seven countries. This is not limited to Crimea, the situation also is destabilized in Donbas, she noted.

According to the NATO official, in the situation with Russian aggression the issue concerns a serious violation since the Second World War, that is, when one country grabs part of the territory of another country.

We will continue to discuss destabilizing actions in Ukraine carried out by Russia. It's about illegal annexation of Crimea and militarization of the Black Sea region and other provocative activities... We must reduce the number of risks to prevent accidents and incidents. Discussions as part of the NATO-Russia Council are difficult. On the topic of Ukraine, we do not have common ground, but we believe that it is important to have a dialogue, she said.