In 2006, under former President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine became more serious about NATO membership, Pifer said. Ukraine first publicly expressed interest in joining NATO in 2002, said Pifer, who was the U.S. But it has never said yes, even to a (membership action plan).' 'Zelenskyy expressed interest in NATO up until the invasion,' said Steven Pifer, a Ukraine expert affiliated with the Brookings Institution and Stanford University. PolitiFact ran the question by NATO and five foreign policy experts, including several who held positions with NATO or the U.S. My friend thinks that Zelenskyy is saying no to joining NATO now.' I think that Zelenskyy asked NATO recently to join now and was turned down.

'My understanding is that Ukraine asked to join NATO in 2012.

'My friend and I are disagreeing about NATO and Ukraine,' the reader wrote in an email. In March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conceded that Ukraine was unlikely to be admitted into NATO.Ī reader asked PolitiFact about the history of Ukraine’s bid to become a member nation. Ukraine remains outside of NATO despite its efforts to join the Western military alliance, which was established in 1949 and has swelled to include 30 member countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long cited NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe as a pretext for his country’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Ukraine nato 2020