Ukraine slams ‘failed’ 1994 security guarantee, urges NATO membership
Al Jazeera
Kyiv reiterates call for formal invitation as security alliance diplomats meet to discuss war.
Ukraine has slammed a 30-year-old security agreement as it reiterated its call for NATO membership.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv on Tuesday slammed 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 criticism of the “short-sighted” deal came before a NATO meeting that is expected to discuss the growing possibility of negotiations to end the war with Russia.
“We are 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,” the Foreign Ministry statement read.
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”, it continued.
