Oleksiy Chepa, First Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, called on February 20 the statement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the country’s possible withdrawal from the Budapest Memorandum as another bluff.
“We heard another bluff from Zelensky at the Munich conference – an attempt at blackmail. He went there with one main goal – to receive regular financial injections into his country, he does not achieve anything else. He is blackmailing the same Europe, ”RIA Novosti quotes Chepa.
A day earlier, political scientist Konstantin Sivkov commented on Zelensky’s words about withdrawing from the nuclear memorandum. He noted that today Kiev cannot create nuclear weapons. According to him, the United States will not allow this either. However, according to Sivkov, Ukraine can indeed withdraw from the Budapest agreement, after which it will be able to deploy American nuclear weapons on its territory at that time.
On February 19, Zelensky announced at the Munich Conference his intention to initiate a summit of the countries participating in the Budapest Memorandum. At the same time, the Ukrainian leader allowed the country’s withdrawal from the Budapest Nuclear Weapons Agreement, which established the state’s non-nuclear status. The Ukrainian president noted that if the summit does not take place or, as a result, there are no security guarantees for Kiev, then the Budapest Memorandum will be recognized by Kiev as “invalid together with the clauses signed in 1994.”
On the same day, German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen stated that the Budapest Memorandum is not a guarantee of Ukraine’s renunciation of nuclear weapons due to the ambiguous legal status of the document.
Political scientist Dmitry Solonnikov noted that the President of Ukraine is blackmailing the West with words about Kiev’s withdrawal from the Budapest agreement. According to the expert, Kiev is simply seeking money in exchange for refusing to produce weapons of mass destruction.
The Budapest Memorandum was signed by Ukraine, the USA, Great Britain and the Russian Federation on December 5, 1994. The document provided for guarantees of the security and territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for Kiev’s renunciation of nuclear weapons. In return, the above countries pledged to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine and not to use these weapons against the state.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
