Accession to NATO is a matter of security for Ukraine, even though it has been treated as a political factor for a long time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"I'll tell you my attitude toward NATO membership. I believe we are to blame for some things ourselves, as well. Because NATO is about security, after all. We've been treating it as a political issue for many years, for 13 years now, which includes constitutional amendments and [assumptions on] when we might see ourselves in NATO," Zelensky said in an interview with Natalia Moseichuk on the 1+1 television channel on Thursday.

"Receiving a NATO Membership Action Plan concerns not the relationship between Ukraine and Russia, but the relationship between Ukraine and the countries of the alliance," he said.

Zelensky suggested that his "predecessors acted incorrectly by showing EU countries and the United States that joining NATO is just an agenda."

"It seems to me a lot of countries have understood that Ukraine can be kept at some distance - well, good job, a little bit more, some more reforms, something else, and so on. But we need support now. We're at war, and we need some tangible actions from the alliance and the U.S. now," he said.

"Just support for Ukraine's territorial integrity isn't enough on the part of its Western partners," Zelensky said.

"What matters isn't so much joining NATO and receiving a NATO Membership Action Plan as whether Ukraine will be able to oppose any escalation on the part of the Russian Federation," he said.