“Zelensky noted that he spoke with US President-elect Donald Trump about the Budapest Memorandum, and “we have not finished this conversation yet, we will continue it””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“The Budapest Memorandum contained security guarantees for Ukraine. First, the three most important security guarantors for Ukraine, the three strategic friends and partners of Ukraine – the USA, Russia, and Britain. France and China joined. There were 5 states… Now we understand that these are no guarantees of security. It was written “assurance”… These are the largest states, these are the nuclear five. Now it would be necessary to find all these people who came up with all this and just put them in prison… After part of Donbas and Crimea was occupied, Ukraine sent letters three times over several years to all guarantors of security, to all members of the Budapest memorandum. What is written in the memorandum? Consultations, Ukraine holds consultations if its territorial integrity is violated. And everyone should be at the consultations, everyone should come, should meet urgently – America, Britain, Russia, France, China,” the president stressed.
According to him, no one came or answered the letters, no consultations were held.
“Why? But damn it. Is that understandable in Russian? Just as Russian was a disgrace, so all other guarantors were a disgrace to this country, to these people, to these security guarantees.”
Zelensky noted that he spoke with US President-elect Donald Trump about the Budapest Memorandum, and “we have not finished this conversation yet, we will continue it.”
The president also said that in February 2022, when a full-scale war had already begun, letters for consultations were also sent, and “no one answered” them.
“The question is simple – can it be trusted? No. No matter which country from these 5 is sitting at the negotiating table, it’s just a piece of paper that “believe me, we will save you,” Zelensky said.
He also called the history of security guarantees for Ukraine a “waste paper train”, the second carriage of which was the Minsk agreements.
“The USA was no longer here. Then there was Obama, he was simply not interested in what happened to Ukraine and where it is,” the president added.
He also accused former German Chancellor Angela Merkel of having “forced everyone to deny Ukraine an invitation to NATO” at the Bucharest summit in 2008, “when even US President George W. Bush, a Republican, supported such a decision.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi told the details of his conversation with the American podcaster Lex Friedman.
“For the first time – an almost three-hour interview for a well-known American podcast. Meaningful answers to difficult questions. The Ukrainian vision of a just peace, which is important for everyone in the partner countries to know,” the president emphasized.
According to Zelensky, in the interview he talked about “the strength of our people, the origins of criminal Russian aggression and our readiness to work together with President Trump and all partners to establish a reliable and lasting peace.”
In 1994, Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. After that, Ukraine, the USA, Russia and Great Britain concluded a Memorandum on Security Guarantees in connection with the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (the so-called Budapest Memorandum). It contains clauses that provide Ukraine with guarantees of its sovereignty and security.
However, in 2014, Russia, which was one of the guarantors of Ukraine’s security under the Budapest Memorandum, disregarded this document and international law in general and launched a hybrid war, and in 2022 a full-scale invasion.