BRUSSELS, July 6 — Against this backdrop of a continent reshaped by war, the question of Ukraine’s place in NATO remains as fraught as it was when the alliance first began its post-Cold War enlargement.
Ukraine first declared its intention to join the alliance in 2002. Six years later, the 2008 Bucharest summit produced a landmark declaration: Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members. No timeline was set. That ambiguity has haunted the alliance ever since.
Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, has consistently opposed NATO expansion, viewing it as a direct threat to its security. This opposition was a key factor in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, which ignited the War in Donbas that burned from 2014 until the full-scale invasion of February 2022.
In 2019, Ukraine amended its constitution to commit itself irrevocably to NATO membership. Moscow’s full-scale invasion three years later was partly justified by the Kremlin as a necessary response to the alliance’s eastward expansion.
What is at stake now, in the corridors of NATO headquarters, is more than a procedural step.
Despite strong support from many member states, Ukraine has not received a Membership Action Plan, the formal roadmap to joining the alliance. The wider picture is one of internal division. NATO remains split over offering Kyiv a clear path to membership, caught between the desire to support a democratic ally and the fear of provoking Moscow further.
The reported exclusion of President Volodymyr Zelensky from delivering a speech at the 2024 summit reflects these ongoing sensitivities. It is a stark reminder of the delicate balance the alliance must strike: managing internal politics while avoiding any step that Russia might interpret as a provocation.
The Bucharest promise of 2008, now nearly two decades old, remains unfulfilled. For Ukraine, the road to NATO membership has been long, and the destination is still not in sight.
