“Introduce yourself as a victim”: why Ukraine is trying to appeal to the Budapest memorandum

In the capital of Hungary, 25 years ago, a Budapest memorandum was signed. This international document enshrined the provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) with respect to Ukraine after it abandoned the arsenal it had inherited after the collapse of the USSR.

On December 5, an international conference dedicated to the anniversary date starts in the United States. However, the Russian side will not be represented at this event - this was announced at the end of November by the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, ex-ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

“The plan was a trip, but I'm not going. I do not have a visa, and the priorities in my work are different now, ”the RIA Novosti politician quotes.

Memorandum History

The collapse of the USSR led to the formation of several independent states on whose territory a large number of Soviet nuclear weapons were located. Political instability, as well as a number of regional conflicts in the former republics of the Soviet Union, demanded an early resolution of the issue of control and accounting for nuclear weapons.

• Signing of the Budapest Memorandum by the USA, Russia and Ukraine
• Reuters

At the time of the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine had the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world. According to the first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, 165 nuclear ballistic complexes remained in the country. Estimates of the total amount of nuclear weapons remaining on the territory of the former Soviet republic vary widely, but on average about 1.2 thousand nuclear warheads were then in Ukraine.

On July 16, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR, chaired by Leonid Kravchuk, adopted a declaration of state sovereignty. In this document, the country's nuclear-free status was proclaimed. In 1991, Kiev agreed with Moscow on the export of tactical nuclear weapons, and in May 1992, Kravchuk informed US President George W. Bush of his readiness to abandon intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In 1992, Russia, the USA, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine signed the Lisbon Protocol, according to which the republics refused the nuclear arsenal inherited from the USSR, transferred weapons and their delivery vehicles to Russia, and joined the NPT.

The Ukrainian side demanded additional guarantees, in particular, to maintain territorial integrity. After the negotiation period in December 1994 in Budapest, the heads of the Russian Federation, the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine signed a memorandum according to which Kiev pledged to transfer all the nuclear arsenals remaining from the USSR to the Russian side in exchange for security guarantees from signatory countries.

The participants in the memorandum promised to refrain from using weapons against Ukraine, with the exception of cases of self-defense or for other reasons stipulated by the UN Charter, as well as "respect the independence and sovereignty" of the country.

It should be noted that the document has not been ratified by the participating States.

Warranties and representations

The issue of compliance with the Budapest memorandum returned to the political discourse of Ukraine after the events of 2014, when a legitimately elected president Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown as a result of a coup and the pro-Western opposition came to power.

These events led to the exit through the referendum of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and its reunification with Russia, as well as to the conflict of Kiev with the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donbass. In an attempt to relieve themselves of responsibility for what is happening, the new Kiev authorities accused Russia of taking over the territory. Then the administration of Petro Poroshenko began to appeal for compliance with the Budapest memorandum.

The top officials of his administration and Poroshenko himself have repeatedly expressed regret over Ukraine’s refusal of nuclear weapons. So, in 2017, the head of state said that Russia would not “attack” Ukraine if Kiev had not parted with the nuclear arsenal at one time, and “a dozen Budapest memorandums cost less than one nuclear charge.”

The Ukrainian side has consistently accused Russia of non-compliance with the provisions of the memorandum, and the United States and Great Britain of non-fulfillment of its obligations to protect Ukraine.

It is worth noting that Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that the document was never ratified by any of the parties. In addition, the events of 2014, which led to the reunification of Crimea with Russia and the conflict in the Donbass, do not imply an appeal to this document. In particular, back in 2015, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reminded of this.

“With regard to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in this memorandum the Russian Federation, the United States and Great Britain made a legal obligation not to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and not to threaten the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. This was done in exchange for Ukraine’s voluntary abandonment of the nuclear arsenals of the former Soviet Union. Russia didn’t take any other obligations, just as the USA and Great Britain didn’t take them, ”Lavrov said then.

According to the head of the Russian foreign ministry, “The Budapest memorandum did not oblige us to agree with the state anti-constitutional armed coup”.

It is worth noting that the participants in the negotiation process of 1992-1994 also emphasized that the memorandum in itself is more of a recommendatory nature than a binding treaty. This, in particular, was stated by the former US ambassador to Ukraine Stephen Pifer, who participated in his signing.

“The word“ assurances ”is present in the English text of the memorandum, that is,“ assurances of support ”, but not“ guarantees ”. This is an important difference. For example, our NATO allies have security guarantees. South Korea and Japan, with which the United States has concluded joint defense treaties, have guarantees. In the case of Ukraine, we are talking about assurances. This is a less powerful word. Secondly, the memorandum did not specify a response mechanism, except for appealing to the UN Security Council if nuclear weapons are used against Ukraine, ”the American diplomat quoted“ 112 Ukraine ”as saying.

As Bohdan Bezpalko, an expert of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, noted in a conversation with RT, the memorandum stopped working after constitutional law was violated in Kiev during the so-called Orange Revolution of 2004, as well as a coup in 2014, which resulted in the incumbent president was removed and Alexander Turchinov, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Petro Poroshenko came to power.

“The Budapest memorandum is no longer relevant, it does not work through the fault of Ukraine itself, which allowed a critical overstrain of society within itself, division, division and civil war,” Bezpalko explained.

• President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky
• © Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters

“No country wants to intervene”

The new Ukrainian administration in the person of Vladimir Zelensky does not forget about the Budapest memorandum. So, on December 2, in an interview with Western media, he noted that the adoption of a new international agreement is required to protect Ukraine.

“The Budapest memorandum is not being implemented. This was a serious agreement that was not implemented. I believe that every document should talk about rights and obligations, as well as responsibility. There was no clause on liability in the memorandum, ”Zelensky quoted Interfax as saying.

The president added that he would like the United States, China, Russia, as well as other players and EU countries to sign a “new big agreement” that will protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Despite the fact that the Budapest Memorandum was not a binding international agreement, Kiev stubbornly considers it to support its own rhetoric, says Bogdan Bezpalko.

“Ukraine needs to show that she became a victim and that they did not come to her aid at the right time. Now for Zelensky, the actual issue is the Minsk agreements and Steinmeier’s formula, from which he wants to deviate as much as possible, including by eroding the agenda: including negotiations on gas and the Crimea, mentioning the Budapest memorandum in the press, ”Bezpalko explained.

At the same time, the Ukrainian political establishment indicates that Western countries are not interested in securing any new obligations with respect to Ukraine.

“Obviously, Zelensky wants to recall that no one has fulfilled his obligations, which means that Ukraine needs to once again lend a helping hand. However, such statements have not caused any emotions for a long time. I think Zelensky still did not understand this, ”said a source in RT in the Voice party.

According to an interlocutor of RT from the Fatherland party, the president does not realize that no one is going to sign any new agreements.

“He is still new to politics and obviously does not understand simple things. Military operations are ongoing in Ukraine. What guarantees can be in this situation? No country wants to intervene in this process. Moreover, Ukraine itself never observes its obligations, ”the deputy stated.