Ukraine has over the past ten years developed a very close partnership with NATO. Key areas of consultation and co-operation include, for instance, peacekeeping operations, and defence and security sector reform. NATO´s engagement serves two vital purposes for Ukraine. First, it enhances Ukraine´s long-term security and serves as a guarantee for the independence of the state; and second, it promotes and encourages democratic institutionalisation and spreading of democratic norms and values in the country. NATO´s door for Ukraine remains open. The future development of the integration depends on Ukraine´s correspondence to the standards of NATO membership, on the determination of its political leadership, and on an effective mobilisation of public opinion on NATO membership. This report shows that Ukraine has made pregress in reaching the standards for NATO membership, especially in the sphere of military contribution and interoperability, but the absence of national consensus and lack of political will and strategic management of the state administration hamper any effective implementation of Ukraine´s Euro-Atlantic integration. It is also crucial to neutralise Russia´s influence over Ukraine, which seriously hampers Ukraine´s Euro-Atlantic course. Leading representatives of the current leadership, especially Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions of Ukraine, prefer for the moment continued stable relations with Russia rather than NATO membership.