Evolution of US‐Ukraine Strategic Partnership in the Security Sphere: Trial by War and Political Disturbances

Abstract

Relations between Ukraine and the United States have become particularly intense and important since the start of Russia’s large‐scale armed aggression against Ukraine, which made the United States its main strategic security partner. However, this cooperation began much earlier. Therefore, this article briefly examines the initial evolution of bilateral interaction from 1992 to 2025, with a special emphasis on the transformation through institutionalized defense cooperation through and partly as a result of building a strategic alliance between the two countries on the path to traditional political support. The purpose of the study is twofold: first, to highlight characteristic periods/phases in Ukrainian‐American relations, and secondly (simultaneously) to identify factors that become key elements/issues that attract the attention of different levels in the contextual political/security/defense interaction. The study includes historical and political analysis using the comparative legal method, content analysis of international treaties, US legislation and analytical materials of leading think tanks. Thus, in the evolution of cooperation, three main periods can be distinguished: (1) symbolic political support of the 1990s, also characteristic of relations with other countries, where the main task was the development of democracy; (2) 2014‐2021, when relations significantly deepened in the context of military aggression and the corresponding partnership in the defense sector; (3) the period after 2022, when unprecedented US military assistance to Ukraine acquires the features of a strategic alliance based on the Bilateral Security Agreement between the two countries, which allows for the development of comprehensive defense cooperation. By the third period, Ukraine becomes an active participant in regional stability. This radically changes its role in the international environment and allows us to look at it from a different perspective, not only as a donor‐recipient. This clearly demonstrates the evolution of Ukrainian‐American relations.