MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) - NATO member states are trying to ignore the opinion of Ukrainians regarding their country's membership of the alliance Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"They (the NATO members) wrote down in Bucharest: Ukraine will join NATO. This means that they are reluctant to listen to what the Ukrainian people would say at a referendum," Lavrov told a news conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Ohryzko.

Ohryzko underscored the fact that the defining decision on Ukraine's membership of the alliance will be made at a referendum. He noted however, that Ukraine sees no way of guaranteeing its security other than joining the alliance.

"This has to do with the fact that our legislation stipulates that Ukraine will join NATO in the future, that Ukraine will develop its relations with NATO not to the detriment of good strategic relations with Russia, and that Ukraine will aspire to do everything to improve relations with our strategic partners," Ohryzko said.

The development of relations with Russia is a priority for Ukraine, he added.

"Ukraine's entry to NATO poses no threat to Russia," Ohryzko said.

Speaking on the point that Ukrainians were lukewarm regarding Kyiv's plans to join NATO, the Ukrainian foreign minister said that the attitude stems from the lack of information about the alliance.

Lavrov noted that Russia "of course cooperates with NATO, but we just want to understand what the essence of the NATO mechanical expansion is, which follows absolutely in the path of outdated block approaches. No security issue: be it the fight against terrorism or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, can be resolved in this region without Russia's participation."

The alliance is constantly speaking about the end of the Cold War and that NATO is evolving into is a global security organization, the Russian foreign minister said.

"However, the issue of how the bloc will interact with the UN Security Council is laid aside," Lavrov said. He also doubts that the declared alliance's policy complies with it real actions, for example the bombing of Yugoslavia and the declaration of the Kosovo independence.

"These are serious issues, and they cannot be ignored. Yes, we cooperate with the bloc. But we can see that its evolution has lingered, and it still remains a bloc based on Article 5 of the Washington (North Atlantic) Treaty. But of course we are intended to cooperate, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin clearly stated this in Bucharest," Lavrov said.

It is important that Russian-NATO cooperation is not endangered by actions that have nothing in common with "our common tasks to fight common threats," the Russian foreign minister said.