Kiev has heard loud and clear that it will not be joining NATO, and this is a reality which Ukrainians must come to terms with, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"It's clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We understand this. We are reasonable people. For years we were told about supposedly 'open doors', but have also heard that we cannot enter. This is the truth and this needs to be admitted,'" Zelensky said, speaking at a meeting of the leaders of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president added that Ukraine is not calling for Article Five of the NATO Treaty on joint defence to be activated.

This comes at a time when Russia and Ukraine peace talks have been continuing and seem to reach at an agrrement in the near future.

NATO opened the door to Ukraine and Georgia's "Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership" in 2008 at the alliance's Bucharest summit. Moscow has spent years expressing concerns about the implications that Ukrainian NATO membership would have for Russian and regional security, calling Ukraine's NATO bid a 'red line' which it would not allow to be crossed after several waves of eastward expansion by the bloc.

In 2014, Ukraine's neutrality-seeking government was overthrown in a coup by political forces seeking to push the country westward, prompting Crimea to break off from Kiev's jurisdiction and to rejoin Russia, and sparking a civil war in the country's east.

In December 2014, Ukraine's post-coup parliament formally abandoned the country's non-bloc status. In February 2019, amendments were made to the country's basic law, baking Ukraine's push toward the EU and NATO in the constitution.

Last week, the Ukrainian president said he had "cooled down" on the idea of Kiev's membership in the Western bloc "a long time ago," saying he didn't want to be the leader of a country "that is begging for something on its knees". As recently as January, NATO indicated that Ukrainian and Georgian membership in the bloc was only a matter of time.