“The conditions of 1994 were completely different. When in 2014 Ukraine remembered the Budapest Memorandum, no one remembered that it was. I found it because I worked here in 1994. Indeed, these were the conditions when the former republics of the Soviet The Union wanted and, perhaps, it was necessary that they give up their nuclear weapons. But who then could have thought what would happen today. That is, I don’t think it was a mistake. nuclear weapons are not the weapons that the country wants to have, “the diplomat said.
The Budapest Memorandum was signed on December 5, 1994. According to the document, the signatory countries – Great Britain, Russia and the United States – pledged to be guarantors of the independence, sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, as well as refrain from using any weapon against Ukraine, not only nuclear. In addition, the signatories promised not to exert economic pressure on Kiev. In exchange, Ukraine renounced its nuclear status. The memorandum was signed by the then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major.
Russia in 2014 violated the terms of the memorandumhaving annexed Crimea and starting an armed aggression in Donbass, they said at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that Russia has not violated the Budapest Agreement, since did not use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
In an interview with Axios on HBO recorded on 23 January, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the failure to comply with the Budapest Memorandum meant that any agreements in the world are “multiplied by zero”.
–
– .
