NATO Membership Is the Only Real Security Guarantee for Ukraine – MFA Statement

Only Ukraine's full membership in NATO is the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states.

This is stated in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum.

‘The 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum is a good opportunity to take an effective step towards Ukraine's accession to the Washington Treaty,’ the document says. 

5 December 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the Budapest Memorandum.

The Budapest Memorandum was supposed to provide Ukraine with guarantees of security, sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for giving up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stressed that the Budapest Memorandum failed to prevent the aggression of the Russian Federation as a nuclear-weapon state against Ukraine as a state that had given up its nuclear arsenal. 

‘Not even the consultations envisaged by the document, which Ukraine has repeatedly tried to initiate, were held,’ the diplomatic agency said.

The statement noted that today the Budapest Memorandum is a ‘monument to short-sightedness in making strategic security decisions’, and that the failure to provide Ukraine with real, effective security guarantees in the 1990s was a strategic mistake that Moscow took advantage of.

‘This mistake must be corrected. Ukraine must receive clear, legally binding security assurances that are commensurate with its significant contribution to global nuclear disarmament and the maintenance of international peace and security. We appeal to the United States and the United Kingdom, which signed the Budapest Memorandum, to France and China, which joined it, and to all states parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to support the provision of effective security guarantees to Ukraine,’ the Foreign Ministry said.

Currently, the only such real security guarantee for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine's full membership in NATO.

‘With the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not accept any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for Ukraine's full membership in NATO. Inviting Ukraine to join NATO now will be an effective counter to Russian blackmail and will deprive the Kremlin of its illusions about the possibility of hindering Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration. It is also the only chance to stop the erosion of the key principles of nuclear non-proliferation and restore confidence in nuclear disarmament,’ the Foreign Ministry stressed.