When Will Ukraine Join NATO? Promises of a ‘Fast Track’ and Waiting for the War to End

The NATO countries are determined to let Ukraine have an easier way into the alliance, a western official says.

The allies are set to drop the demand for a so-called MAP (Membership Action Plan) for Ukraine, says an unnamed official on Monday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the NATO countries gather for a summit in Vilnius.

Long way into NATO

MAP is an action plan that potential NATO member countries must go through before they become members.

– MAP is just one of the steps in the NATO process. Even if it is removed, Ukraine will still have to carry out several reforms before joining NATO, the official told the AFP news agency.

Ukraine’s road to NATO membership has been long and tortuous. It began in 1994, when Ukraine became part of a NATO program that promoted military cooperation with former Soviet republics.

In 2002, then-President Leonid Kuchma announced that Ukraine wanted to join NATO. He was told that the country had to continue implementing the necessary reforms.

At the NATO summit in 2008, the allies agreed that both Ukraine and Georgia “will become members” at some point, without making any concrete promises.

Probably have to wait even longer

In 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula. NATO condemned the annexation and stepped up cooperation with the Western-oriented Ukrainian government.

Ukraine applied for NATO membership on 30 September 2022, seven months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

In May 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that it is not “realistic” for Ukraine to join NATO as long as the war continues. At the same time, he called for a clear message that the country will be admitted as a member after the war.

The US has signaled that Ukraine will become part of NATO in the not-too-distant future, but not at this week’s summit in Vilnius.