Budapest memorandum

On 5th of December 1994, Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America sign a Memorandum of Security Assurances by which the signatory countries took mutual obligations.

The obligations boil down to the following:

• Ukraine commits to eliminating all nuclear weapons on its territory
• Other signatories commit to refraining from threatening or attacking Ukraine, and on the contrary – commit to the obligation of assisting Ukraine in case of external threat.

As always, I encourage everyone to consult the text of the Memorandum in its entirety.

The memorandum is signed by legitimate representatives of the respective countries who act in the name of the people of these respective countries.

By the time of the Memorandum signing, Ukraine had approximately 2000 nuclear warheads, which exceeds the potential of France and United Kingdom together.

As per their commitment, Ukraine gradually destroys the nuclear warheads, or to be more precise, ships them to Russia for decommissioning. By 1996 the process is complete.