"2. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine,
Indeed it is. However, you left out against Ukraine except in self-defence and Putin defenders here and elsewhere imagine that Ukraine is a threat despite giving up is nukes and having a small military, and that NATO also threatens Russia, even though it is historical actions by Russian and now by Putin that justify its existence in self-defense.
Yet another reason why it is in the Ukes’ interest to build their own Nukes.
Not very smart on our part to be encouraging this line of reasoning. Russia is clearly in the wrong and we should be doing a ton of stuff to stop them. Hopefully that doesn’t mean American body bags but there is a direct path towards nuke war if we don’t do what we can to stop this nonsense.
That Ukraine could invoke self-defence as a reason to use military weapons against Russia is logical and perfectly reasonable.
The only way America could invoke self-defence, however, with how this Memorandum was worded would be if *Ukraine* attacked *America*. Read it again: “...the USA reaffirms [its] obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against...Ukraine, and that none of [America’s] weapons will ever be used **against** Ukraine except in self-defence...”
Invoking “self-defence” to justify America intervening in Ukraine to fight Russian invaders is nonsensical.