Ukraine has slammed a 30-year-old security agreement.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv decried 1994’s Budapest Memorandum, which saw the newly independent country give up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal for security guarantees from Russia and the West.
The message, marking this week’s 30th anniversary of the pact, came as NATO Foreign Ministers convened in Brussels to discuss the grinding Ukraine war and the growing possibility of negotiations to end it.
According to the ministry, the Budapest Agreement; signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, was “a monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making.”
“Not providing Ukraine with real, effective security guarantees in the 1990s was a strategic mistake that Moscow exploited. This mistake must be corrected.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Aside the “failed” Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine’s government condemned the Minsk agreements, which implemented an uneasy ceasefire following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent fighting with pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “Enough of the Budapest Memorandum. Enough of the Minsk agreements. Twice is enough, we cannot fall into the same trap a third time.”
Amid this fear of a forced ceasefire that would leave Ukrainian territory under Russian control and the rest of the country threatened by aggression in the future, Kyiv is urging NATO with increasing urgency for an invitation for it to formally join the security alliance.
Ukraine Urges NATO Membership
The Foreign Ministry asserted in a statement that it is convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO.
“With the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not accept any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for Ukraine’s full membership in NATO.
“Inviting Ukraine to join NATO now will become an effective counter to Russian blackmail and will deprive the Kremlin of its illusions about the possibility of hindering Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration.”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Ministry added that it is also the only chance to stop the erosion of key principles of nuclear non-proliferation and restore confidence in nuclear disarmament.
However, NATO has given little indication it will formally welcome Ukraine into the fold soon.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO meeting, the bloc’s Chief, Mark Rutte did not address NATO accession, but urged the alliance to “do more” to put Ukraine in a favourable negotiating spot.
“We will all need to do more. The stronger our military support to Ukraine is now, the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating table.”
Mark Rutte
He added that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin thinks he can “break Ukraine’s resolve and ours, but he is wrong.”
Kyiv’s calls for robust security guarantees have grown more urgent since the election of Trump, who has pledged to end the war quickly, suggesting Ukraine may have to make tough concessions or risk losing US arms support.
The former Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, recently told a news agency, “We’re getting ready for the worst-case scenario, when [Trump] stops all the supplies.”
Bracing for a Trump presidency, Zelenskyy has said the country is ready to negotiate but must do so with strong leverage, such as with NATO membership and other security assurances. “There will be no capitulation from the side of Ukraine,” he noted at a news conference early this week, acknowledging “we do have to find diplomatic solutions.”
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