“In the Budapest Memorandum, it is stated that Ukraine, as well as other former Soviet republics that renounced nuclear weapons, would receive guarantees that nuclear states provide to non-nuclear states. That’s all. That’s it. These guarantees say that nuclear weapons will not be used against non-nuclear states that are parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”, - said russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with the Hungarian YouTube channel Ultrahang, reports Censor.
Lavrov added that, in parallel with the Budapest Memorandum, the parties signed a declaration outlining their obligations to observe OSCE principles, including the rights of national minorities, democracy, and freedom of speech.
“All these commitments, which were reflected in OSCE documents and reaffirmed within the framework of the Budapest Memorandum, were grossly violated by the Kyiv regime”, - Lavrov claims.
As a reminder, 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 gave up its nuclear arsenal, which at that time was the third-largest in the world after the United States and russia.
In return, the United States, russia, and the United Kingdom undertook the following commitments:
- to respect the independence, sovereignty, and existing borders of Ukraine,
- to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine,
- to refrain from economic coercion that could undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.