A picture taken on Nov 20, 2019 shows a NATO flag at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, during a NATO Foreign Affairs ministers' summit. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)

MOSCOW - Moscow has warned The North Atlantic Treaty Organization that any move towards Ukraine's membership in the bloc will have consequences; the RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying on Thursday.

RIA said Rudenko had been asked about US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin's comments on a visit to Ukraine this week when he said that Washington supported Kyiv's aspiration's to join the transatlantic alliance and that no country could veto such a move.