INTERNATIONAL: Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have started in 1992. Ukraine has applied to begin a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2008. Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country non-aligned, was elected President.

Amid the Euromaidan unrest, Yanukovych has fled Ukraine in February 2014. The interim Yatseniuk Government which came to power initially has said, with reference to the country's non-aligned status, that it had no plans to join NATO.

However, following the Russian military invasion in Ukraine and parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority.

On 21 February 2019, the Constitution of Ukraine was amended,the norms on the strategic course of Ukraine for membership in the European Union and NATO are enshrined in the preamble of the Basic Law, three articles and transitional provisions.

At the June 2021 Brussels Summit, NATO leaders have reiterated the decision taken at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine would become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process and Ukraine's right to determine its own future and foreign policy, of course without outside interference.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has also stressed that Russia will not be able to veto Ukraine's accession to NATO, as we will not return to the era of spheres of interest, when large countries decide what smaller ones should do.

According to polls conducted between 2005 and 2013, Ukrainian public support of NATO membership remained low. However, since Russo-Ukrainian War and Annexation of Crimea, public support for Ukrainian membership in NATO has risen greatly.

Since June 2014, polls have showed that about 50 percent of those asked supported Ukrainian NATO membership. Some 69 percent of Ukrainians want to join NATO, according to a June 2017 poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, compared to 28 percent support in 2012 when Yanukovych was in power.

On October 8, 2020, during a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London, President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that Ukraine needs a NATO Membership Action Plan, as NATO membership will contribute to Ukraine's security and defense.

On December 1, 2020, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine,Andrii Taran has stated that Ukraine clearly outlines its ambitions to obtain the NATO Membership Action Plan and hopes for comprehensive political and military support for such a decision at the Alliance Summit in 2021.

At the end of November 2020, it became known that the NATO Summit in 2021 has considered the issue of returning to "open door policy. On February 9, 2021, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, has stated that he hoped that Ukraine would be able to receive an action plan for NATO membership. In response, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed during Prime Minister Shmyhal's visit to Brussels that Ukraine is a candidate for NATO membership.

On April 10, 2021, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andrii Taran has stated that the top priority of the Ukrainian political leadership is to obtain the Action Plan for Membership (MAP) in the North Atlantic Alliance.

At a briefing in Kyiv in May 2021, Democrat Senator Chris Murphy has said at a briefing in Kyiv following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that granting Ukraine a MAP would be the next logical step toward NATO membership. He has stressed that Ukraine has already made several reforms necessary to become a member of NATO, as well as to carry out additional reforms. He also noted that if Ukraine had received the MAP in 2008, there would have been no conflict with Russia at all.

On 28 June 2021, Ukraine and NATO forces have launched joint naval drills in the Black Sea codenamed Sea Breeze 2021. Russia had condemned the drills, with the Russian Defence Ministry saying it would closely monitor them.

On January 11, 2022, it became known that a group of Republican congressmen has intended to introduce a bill declaring Ukraine a NATO-plus country and initiating a review of the advisability of declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Chairman of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Yermak has said that the Ukrainian authorities hope to hear specific conditions for joining the North Atlantic Alliance; “Ukraine has shown to its principles and positions that we are fully prepared and able to be a member of NATO. This means that at the Madrid summit this year we hope to see and hear very specific conditions and information about this, because today, especially today, I would like to repeat that now this is a matter of life and death for our country.”