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#AceNewsDesk – A reader asked, PolitiFact answered 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 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. In March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conceded that Ukraine was unlikely to be admitted into NATO.

“My friend and I are disagreeing about NATO and Ukraine,” a PolitiFact reader asked about the history of Ukraine’s NATO bid in an email. “My understanding is that Ukraine asked to join NATO in 2012. NATO responded with no, but maybe later. I think that Zelenskyy asked NATO recently to join now and was turned down. My friend thinks that Zelenskyy is saying no to joining NATO now.”

PolitiFact ran the question by NATO and five foreign policy experts, including several who held positions with NATO or the U.S. State Department. The answer is complicated.

“Zelenskyy expressed interest in NATO up until the invasion,” said Steven Pifer, a Ukraine expert affiliated with the Brookings Institution and Stanford University. “NATO has never turned him down. But it has never said yes, even to a (membership action plan).”

Ukraine first publicly expressed interest in joining NATO in 2002, said Pifer, who was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2000.

In January 2008, former President Viktor Yushchenko called for a membership action plan, or MAP, this time with the support of a new prime minister and the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Pifer said. But all NATO decisions are made by consensus, rather than voting. At NATO’s Bucharest summit later in 2008, member countries did not reach a consensus on Ukraine’s request.

“NATO membership is something which is decided by 30 allies,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said April 5, recounting the history at a press conference. “Since 2008, NATO allies have provided support to Ukraine. But we have not had consensus on granting membership.”

While the NATO members in Bucharest did not agree to put Ukraine on the path toward membership, they did make a broader commitment to eventually admit Ukraine.

Ukraine has since amended its constitution to explicitly spell out its desire to join NATO, and joining NATO remains the official policy of Ukraine, U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013 Ivo Daalder said.

NATO, meanwhile, has repeatedly said its door remains open. In a statement to PolitiFact, a NATO official said the alliance has never shut out aspiring new members, and that Russia has no veto or right to influence its neighboring countries in their pursuit of NATO membership. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in 2021, “We support Ukraine membership in NATO.”

A consensus among NATO members is still required to admit new countries, however. Those members remain divided over the wisdom of welcoming Ukraine into their ranks, experts said, in large part because admitting NATO could mean angering or entering into war with Russia.

“One could say this is placating Russia, but it might simply be a recognition of reality,” Christopher Preble, co-director of Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative, said. “Formal NATO membership is unlikely, and he’s exploring all possible options.” Read the rest of the story by Bill McCarthy here.

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