NATO membership is least Ukraine should receive in exchange for nuclear weapons, - Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers the Budapest Memorandum to be a mistake on the part of all the signatories.
He stated this in an interview for the podcast *The Rest Is Politics*, according to Censor.NET.
Details
"When Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons, the price the other side was supposed to pay had to be fair. I believe that NATO membership was the least Ukraine’s leaders should have received in exchange for the nuclear arsenal. What did we get? Nothing. It was an unfair deal and a huge mistake," the president said.
According to Zelenskyy, this was not only a mistake on Ukraine’s part, but also a mistake on the part of the other signatories to the Budapest Memorandum.
"These are nuclear powers. If they asked you to give up your nuclear weapons, they should have provided you with a security umbrella. Perhaps a nuclear umbrella.
In the end, it was all a deception. A significant portion of our nuclear weapons was transferred to Russia. For example, the strategic aircraft that Russia is now using against us in this war," he concluded.
What is the Budapest Memorandum?
The Budapest Memorandum is a political document signed in December 1994 by the leaders of Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom, which guaranteed Ukraine’s security in exchange for its renunciation of nuclear weapons.
According to the document, Kyiv renounced its nuclear arsenal, which at the time was the third largest in the world after those of the United States and Russia.
Instead, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom undertook the following commitments:
- to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and current borders,
- refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine,
- refrain from applying economic pressure that could undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.
In Ukraine, this document was viewed as one of the tools for ensuring security against the world’s most powerful players.
