This is a document signed at the highest level by the heads of state. It is clear that Ukrainians knew they weren't getting the exactly legally binding, really robust security guarantees they sought.īut they were told at the time that the United States and Western powers - so certainly at least the United States and Great Britain - take their political commitments really seriously. It is hard to estimate whether Ukrainians would foresee the impact. On whether Ukraine foresaw the impact of denuclearizing This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Mariana Budjeryn of Harvard University spoke with All Things Considered about the legacy of the Budapest Memorandum and its impact today. Now, that agreement is front and center again.
and Russia would guarantee Ukraine's security in a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum. But in the years that followed, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize.
Thousands of nuclear arms had been left on Ukrainian soil by Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world. Ukrainian Military Forces servicemen walk past a metal plate that reads "caution mines" on the front line with Russia-backed separatists.
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