The final decision on joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization by Ukraine depends only on its members, since the application for NATO membership was filed by Kyiv in 2008 and has not been withdrawn since then, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna has said.

"In 2008, Ukraine already applied for membership in NATO. It was the well-known "letter by Ukraine's top three leaders," and this application has never been withdrawn... Today, the decision [on Ukraine's membership in NATO] is up to NATO leaders who can consider our application in a package together with Sweden and Finland," Stefanishyna said during a national telethon on Saturday.

According to her, Kyiv has already exhausted 99.9% of the tools that allowed it, for its part, to take steps towards joining the Alliance.

"This decision now [should be made] is not on the territory of Ukraine," the minister said.

At the same time, Stefanyshina said that Ukraine is ready to join NATO "at any moment, if such a decision is made from the point of view of mutual compatibility and military capabilities."

"Letter by Ukraine's top three leaders" is a letter sent to the then Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (2004-2009) in January 2008, signed by three then top leaders of the Ukrainian state (third President of Ukraine Viktor Yuschenko, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Arseniy Yatsenyuk), which contained an appeal to the Alliance with a request to consider the possibility of granting Ukraine an Membership Action Plan at the NATO summit in April 2008 in Bucharest.