The Ukrainian Parliament, Verkhovna Rada, has adopted amendments to the laws regulating the country's domestic and foreign policy, as well as national security principles, repealing Ukraine's non-aligned status.

The bill, submitted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko last week, was supported by 303 MPs and opens the way to Ukraine's integration into NATO.

As previously reported by the presidential press service, the draft law is aimed at “providing an additional mechanism for ensuring the sovereignty, territorial integrity and protection of the independence of Ukraine.”

An explanatory note to the document says that Ukraine's non-aligned status has turned out to be ineffective from the point of view of maintaining the country's security.

"Ukraine's non-aligned status, which is documented in the law "On the principles of domestic and foreign policy" has turned out to be ineffective in the context of protecting the security of our state from foreign aggression and pressure," the note says.