“Bitter lessons of the Budapest Memorandum”: Ukraine will not agree to an alternative to NATO membership

Ukraine will not agree to any alternative security guarantees other than full NATO membership.

This was stated in a declaration by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, which was distributed at a ministerial meeting of NATO countries.

“We are convinced that the only real security guarantee for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is full membership of Ukraine in NATO. Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum, we will not agree to any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for full NATO membership for Ukraine,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Ukraine is calling on the United States and the United Kingdom, which signed the Budapest Memorandum, as well as France and China, which joined it, and all the countries that are parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to invite it into the Alliance.