Ukraine officially renounces alternative guarantees to NATO membership, the Ukrainian publication European Pravda reported on Tuesday, citing a document in its possession. According to the publication, on the day of the start of the NATO ministerial meeting, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced its official position regarding possible security guarantees. The statement, as reported by European Pravda, emphasizes that it was made “on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum.” However, the document was published two days before the mentioned date, and the choice of the day of publication was not accidental - the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Sibiga intends to present this position within the framework of the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels.
“We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further aggression by Russia against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the publication quotes the statement. At the same time, the document emphasizes that Ukraine refuses in advance formats alternative to membership. “Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the Foreign Ministry emphasizes.
According to the publication, a lengthy statement by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, framed as a political position document, begins with references to expectations from the so-called “Budapest Memorandum,” signed in 1994 as part of an agreement on Ukraine’s renunciation of its nuclear arsenal. The Foreign Ministry calls the memorandum a monument to short-sightedness in making strategic security decisions and emphasizes that “the development of the European security architecture at the expense of Ukraine’s interests, and not taking them into account, is doomed to failure.”
At the same time, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeals to the United States and Great Britain, which signed the Budapest Memorandum, France and China, which joined it, to all member states of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, with an appeal to politically support the invitation of Ukraine to NATO now, which will become " effective counteraction to Russian blackmail."
