1994 Budapest Memorandum: Another International Agreement Russia Has Violated

Topline Points:

• The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991-- leaving many nuclear weapons strewn across former Soviet republics which now form the states of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. 
• Russia and the United States believed the new states were incapable of maintaining nuclear weapons and it was not in the world’s interest to have more nuclear armed nations and organized the peaceful return of all Soviet nuclear weapons to Russian territory. 
• In exchange, in 1994, Russia, the United States, and Great Britain provided security guarantees to Ukraine (as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan), through The Budapest Memorandum on Security Awareness, for their cooperation. • As part of the memorandum, Russia agreed to respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty, to not use military force or economic pressure against Ukraine, or to use nuclear weapons against it.
• Putin blatantly ruptured this agreement with its illicit annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion in 2022. 
• Whereas President Trump deterred Putin from further invading Ukraine, Biden’s weakness emboldened Putin and failed to live up to our commitments in the 1994 agreement. 

The breakup of the Soviet Union raised difficult questions over what would happen to its nuclear weapons. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine suddenly became independent states holding massive stockpiles of Soviet nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. The United States had no interest in the new governments of former Soviet Bloc states having nuclear weapons in addition to Russia. Therefore, the United States, Russia, Great Britain, and the former Soviet states collectively agreed that it is not in the world’s interest for newly formed governments to possess nuclear weapons in their territories. 

In exchange for the peaceful transfer of nuclear weapons to Russia, Ukraine demanded that the nuclear capable states provide written security guarantees to their country. As a result in 1994, the Clinton Administration forged The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances for Ukraine, with Russia and Great Britain as co-signatories. Each member state agreed to the following provisions: 

1. Respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.
2. Refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. 
3. Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate Ukraine’s own interest.
4. Commit to seek UN Security Council action if Ukraine becomes a victim of an act of aggression or a threat of aggression with use of nuclear weapons. 
5. Commit to not use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state except in an attack against themselves. 
6. All parties will consult in the event these commitments come into question. 

The Russian Federation broke the agreement in 2014 with their illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea. Russia’s further invasion and war against Ukraine in February 2022 completely ruptured the Budapest Memorandum as well as the separate Minsk agreements. In both 2014 and 2022, the Ukrainian government sought relief through provision 4 and 6 of the Budapest Memorandum to no avail largely because Russia, as the aggressor, could block action at the United Nations, and because both Presidents Obama and Biden failed to step up and appropriately assist Ukraine to protect its territorial integrity in the absence of a nuclear deterrent. 

Vladimir Putin claims that the U.S. orchestrated a coup in the 2014 Ukrainian election, thereby breaking the Budapest Memorandum. Putin alleges that the Ukrainian government was therefore illegitimate and not under protections from the original 1994 agreement. 

The failure of the United States to fully uphold Ukraine’s territorial integrity against Russian aggression severely undermined the prospect that any nation in the future would unilaterally hand over its nuclear weapons capability in exchange for commitments from the United States or others in the international community. This represents a further example of Presidents Obama and Biden’s inability to uphold America’s commitment to our allies, to advance our interests, and is another example of weakness in the face our enemies.