Ukraine's entry into NATO could happen at any time

The New Year's week was marked for Ukraine by another demonstrative step by the political elite - the abandonment of neutral status and the actual start of preparations for joining NATO.

This happened on Tuesday, December 23, when the Verkhovna Rada, with 303 votes in favor, approved the law introduced by Petro Poroshenko.

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Now the “priorities of national interests”, in particular, have been declared: “the integration of Ukraine into the European political, economic, legal space with the aim of acquiring membership in the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic security space.”

The law also introduced changes according to which from now on the main directions of state policy on national security issues in the foreign policy sphere are deepening cooperation with NATO “in order to achieve the criteria necessary for membership in this organization.”

Poroshenko commented on the adoption of the law on his Facebook page: “Finally, we corrected the mistake - 303 deputies voted to abandon Ukraine’s non-bloc status. European and Euro-Atlantic integration is the only path for Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!"

Let us recall that 23 years ago, the possible accession of Ukraine to NATO was perceived as an illusion of an insignificant minority, mainly existing on American grants. Remembering the situation a year ago, we can state that none of the authoritative experts in Ukraine or in the world made such forecasts. It is necessary, of course, to remember the time of Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency and his manic idea of ​​Ukraine joining NATO, however, as we remember, his desire ultimately did not come true into anything concrete.

Ukraine-NATO relations date back to 1992, namely with Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (now the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council). Next came the signing of the Special Partnership Charter in 1997. In 2005, the Ukrainian side began an intensified dialogue with NATO on the issues of gaining membership and related reforms as a prerequisite for the transition to the Membership Plan. In 2008, Yushchenko, Prime Minister Tymoshenko and Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Yatsenyuk sent the so-called “letter of three” to the governing bodies of the alliance, in which they expressed a desire to join Ukraine to the NATO Membership Action Plan. However, as we remember, since Yanukovych’s presidency, cooperation between Ukraine and NATO has been somewhat frozen, and on April 2, 2010, Yanukovych, by his decision, liquidated the interdepartmental commission on preparations for joining the alliance and the national center for Euro-Atlantic integration.

But since the February coup d'etat in Ukraine, the people who came to power have spoken quite clearly regarding foreign policy priorities and areas of integration.

In the current situation, it can be stated that the adopted changes to the documents defining Ukraine’s foreign policy are rather demonstrative and are intended to once again confirm the orientation of the country’s new leadership. Because, as we understand, now Ukraine, according to a number of criteria, does not meet NATO requirements and standards.

However, based on the conjuncture of modern international relations, the predominance of the approach of political expediency, rather than orientation towards the norms of international law, it can be assumed that, in the event of increased tension in Russian-American relations, Ukraine’s accession to NATO can be greatly intensified (alliance partners always may refer to an exceptional case) and occur at any convenient moment.