Kyiv reiterates call for formal invitation as security alliance diplomats meet to discuss war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [Alina Smutko/Reuters]
Ukraine has slammed a 30-year-old security agreement as it reiterated its call for NATO membership.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv on Tuesday slammed 1994’s Budapest Memorandum, which saw the newly independent country give up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal for security guarantees from Russia and the West.
The criticism of the “short-sighted” deal came before a NATO meeting that is expected to discuss the growing possibility of negotiations to end the war with Russia.
“We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the Foreign Ministry statement read.
The Budapest Agreement – signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan – was “a monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making”, it continued.
“Not providing Ukraine with real, effective security guarantees in the 1990s was a strategic mistake that Moscow exploited. This mistake must be corrected.”
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The message, marking this week’s 30th anniversary of the pact, came as NATO foreign ministers convened in Brussels to discuss the grinding Ukraine war, in which Russia has made recent battlefield gains.
Forced negotiations
With the upcoming return of Donald Trump to the White House raising uncertainty over US support, Kyiv fears being forced to the negotiating table.
As well as the “failed” Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine’s government has condemned the Minsk agreements, which implemented an uneasy ceasefire following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent fighting with pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country.
“Enough of the Budapest Memorandum. Enough of the Minsk agreements. Twice is enough, we cannot fall into the same trap a third time,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Amid this fear of a forced ceasefire that would leave Ukrainian territory under Russian control and the rest of the country threatened by aggression in the future, Kyiv is urging NATO with increasing urgency for an invitation for it to formally join the security alliance.
“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,” said the Foreign Ministry.
“Inviting Ukraine to join NATO now will become 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 added.
“It is also the only chance to stop the erosion of key principles of nuclear non-proliferation and restore confidence in nuclear disarmament.”
However, NATO has given little indication it will formally welcome Ukraine into the fold soon. Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO meeting on Tuesday, the bloc’s chief Mark Rutte did not address NATO accession, but urged the alliance to “do more” to put Ukraine in a favourable negotiating spot.
“We will all need to do more. The stronger our military support to Ukraine is now, the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating table,” Rutte said, adding that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin thinks he can “break Ukraine’s resolve and ours, but he is wrong”.
Kyiv’s calls for robust security guarantees have grown more urgent since the election of Trump, who has pledged to end the war quickly, suggesting Ukraine may have to make tough concessions or risk losing US arms support.
“We’re getting ready for the worst-case scenario, when [Trump] stops all the supplies,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, the former deputy head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, recently told Al Jazeera.
Bracing for a Trump presidency, Zelenskyy has said the country is ready to negotiate but must do so with strong leverage, such as with NATO membership and other security assurances.
“There will be no capitulation from the side of Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy at a Sunday news conference, acknowledging “we do have to find diplomatic solutions”.
The war in Ukraine, dragging through its third year, has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, creating manpower woes for both sides.
Russia, which has brought in thousands of fighters from North Korea to boost its war effort, views Ukraine’s integration into NATO as anathema and says it is an unacceptable security threat.
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had repelled a bid by Russian forces to cross the Oskil River, which has long been a de facto front line in the east.
“As a result of the successful operation, the enemy was destroyed. The right bank of the Oskil river is under the control of the Defence Forces,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
Kyiv also reported that it had shot down 22 of 28 drones that Russia fired overnight at critical infrastructure in the western Ternopil and Rivne regions.
As it has each winter since its February 2022 invasion, Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, triggering power cuts across the country as temperatures drop.