The Budapest Memorandum and the betrayal of Ukraine
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The Budapest Memorandum and the betrayal of Ukraine |
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In 1968 the Non Proliferation Treaty came into being and with it the desire to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. An opportunity presented itself with the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time, it was not just the newly independent Russia that inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union, but also Belarus with over 100 nuclear weapons, Kazakhstan over 1,400, and Ukraine with nearly 9,000. Ukraine further possessed 176 SS19 and SS24 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each with a yield between 400-550kT and 44 strategic bombers. To put this into context, the bomb used to destroy Hiroshima had a yield of around 15kT and the bomb launched against Nagasaki 21kT.
Of course maintenance of nuclear weapons is not cheap and with leaders now more focussed on the economy and providing a reasonable standard of living for its citizens, then the latter three former Soviet republics were keen to use them as bargaining tools. Nuclear weapons come with risks too, an accident could potentially cause a major catastrophe and I will look at such accidents in a separate video. Therefore it made sense to get rid of them but in exchange for the security that the weapons purported to provide.
Belarus and Kazakhstan transferred their nuclear arsenals to Russia. Ukraine also considered this approach but at the end of the day, Russia, as the successor state of the Soviet Union, effectively held all the infrastructure for the weapons and had operational control over them. Ukraine could have requested gaining operational control over all or some of the weapons but for obvious reasons of cost, decided to destroy the weapons it held.
In exchange for disposing of its nuclear deterrent, Ukraine wanted three things.
The first was that it wanted financial compensation for the value of the highly-enriched uranium in the nuclear warheads, which, once processed, could be used as fuel in nuclear reactors. Russia agreed to this.
The second point is that eliminating the missiles and all the equipment that comes with it is very expensive. With the economy in free fall, the Ukrainian government requested financial assistance to remove this weaponry and the United States stepped in with the cash.
The third point was that it had given up its deterrent and therefore requested security assurances which came in the form of the Budapest Memorandum which was signed on 5 December 1994 by Ukraine: Leonid D. KUCHMA For the Russian Federation: Boris N. YELTSIN For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: John MAJOR For the United States of America: William J. CLINTON.
1. Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.
2. Refrain from the threat or the use of force against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
3. Refrain from using economic pressure on Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to influence their politics.
4. Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".
5. Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
6. Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments
On the 7 December 1994 this was lodged with the United Nations and entitled the Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons The declaration was circulated as a document of the General Assembly and signed by Anatoli M. ZLENKO for Ukraine, Sergey V. LAVROV for Russia, David HANNAY for the UK and Madeleine K. ALBRIGHT for the United States of America. Incidentally that is the same Sergey Lavrov who lodged this memorandum with the UN that is today the Foreign Minister of Russia.
As I am sure, any lawyer would point out, there is no clause stating what the consequences would be for any signatory who brok ethe agreement. Indeed the UK and US could argue that since they have not invaded Ukraine, they have not broken the word of the agreement and that their responsibility is limited to seeking immediate Security Council action. However, many would argue that both of these countries have broken the spirit of the agreement in doing next to nothing to support Ukraine.
My history channel is based on my own research and generally comes from places I have visited and or original research. I live in a motorhome and as such spend most of my time travelling between Poland, Germany and Italy which is why there is a tendency to produce material from these countries, and sometimes material that is not available in English. My speciality is in World War Two, and in particular, the Holocaust.
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Budapest Memorandum | USSR | Soviet Union | Ukraine | Russia | Sergey Lav | Non Proliferation Treaty | Non Profileration of | non proliferation of nuclear weapons | Nuclear weapons | russia ukraine war | budapest memorandum | ukraine crisis |
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