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To: Who is John Galt?

THIS MAY HELP YOU: https://www.pircenter.org/media/content/files/12/13943175580.pdf

What Assurances Was Ukraine Looking For?
First, Ukraine wanted compensation for the enriched uranium in the nuclear warheads that could be used for fuel, which Russia agreed to.

Secondly, Ukraine wanted the cost of getting rid of intercontinental ballistic missiles and their facilities covered, which the United States agreed to handle.

Finally, Ukraine wanted security assurances, which was addressed in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

The very short memorandum had six basic points that can be read in full here. The key points affirm:
1. The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.
2. The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
3. […] refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.
4. […] reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a nonnuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.
5. […] reaffirm, in the case of the Ukraine, their commitment not to use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories or dependent territories, their armed forces, or their allies, by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state.

6. The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will consult in the event a situation arises which
raises a question concerning these commitments.

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances refers to three identical political agreements signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Belarus’s, Kazakhstan’s and Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.

The memorandum included security assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

As a result, between 1994 and 1996, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons. Before that, Ukraine had the world’s third largest nuclear weapons stockpile, of which Ukraine had physical if not operational control.[4][5] The use of the weapons was dependent on Russian-controlled electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system.

Following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, the US, Canada, the UK, along with other countries, stated that Russian involvement was a breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, a Memorandum transmitted to the United Nations under the signature of Sergei Lavrov, amongst others, and in violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Contents

1 Content
2 Analysis
3 Breach of the agreement
3.1 Occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
3.2 2013 Belarus Sanctions
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Content

According to the memorandum, Russia, the U.S., and the UK confirmed, in recognition of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine becoming parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and in effect abandoning its nuclear arsenal to Russia, that they would:

• Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty and the existing borders.
• Refrain from the threat or use of force against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
• Refrain from using economic pressure on Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine in order to influence its politics.
• Seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, “if Belarus/Kazakhstan/Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”.
• Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
• Consult with one another if questions arise regarding these commitments.

Analysis

Under the agreement, the signatories offered Ukraine “security assurances” in exchange for its adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The memorandum bundled together a set of assurances that Ukraine already held from the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) Final Act, United Nations Charter and Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Ukrainian government nevertheless found it valuable to have these assurances in a Ukraine-specific document.

China and France gave security assurances for Ukraine in separate documents. China’s governmental statement of 4 December 1994 did not call for mandatory consultations if questions arose, just calling for “fair consultations”. France’s declaration of 5 December 1994 did not mention consultations.

Breach of the agreement Occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia after hosting the Budapest Memorandum Ministerial on the Ukraine crisis in Paris, France, on March 5, 2014.
Further information: Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

In February 2014, Russian forces seized or blockaded various airports, as well as other strategic sites throughout Crimea. The troops were attached to the Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed in Crimea, placing Russia in violation of the Budapest Memorandum. The Russian Foreign Ministry had confirmed the movement of armored units attached to the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, but asserted that they are acting within the scope of the various agreements between the two countries. Other official Russian sources denied that the units in the area of Sevastopol International Airport, specifically, were attached to the Black Sea Fleet. Russia responded by supporting a referendum on whether the Crimea should join the Russian Federation. Russia announced the referendum was being conducted by ‘local forces’. On 16 March, Russia annexed Crimea. Ukraine vigorously protested the action as a violation of Article 1 of the Budapest Memorandum.

In response to the crisis, the Ukrainian parliament requested that the Memorandum’s signatories reaffirm their commitment to the principles enshrined in the political agreement, and further asked that they hold consultations with Ukraine to ease tensions.

The Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally displaced persons (Ukrainian: Міністерство з питань тимчасово окупованих територій та внутрішньо переміщених осіб України) is a government ministry in Ukraine that was officially established on 20 April 2016 to manage occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea regions affected by Russian military intervention of 2014.

On 24 March 2014, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper led the rest of the G7 partners at an ad-hoc meeting during the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague to suspend Russian membership, partially, said Harper, because Russia had violated the Budapest Memorandum. He said that Ukraine had given up its nuclear weapons “on the basis of an explicit Russian guarantee of its territorial integrity. By breaching that guarantee, President Putin has provided a rationale for those elsewhere who needed little more than that already furnished by pride or grievance to arm themselves to the teeth.” Harper also indicated support for Ukraine by saying he would work with the new Ukrainian government towards a free trade agreement.

Canadian journalist Michael Colborne pointed out “there are actually SIX OBLIGATIONS in the Budapest Memorandum, and the first of them is “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.”

Colborne also pointed out that a broadcast of Lavrov’s claim on the Twitter account of Russia’s embassy in the United Kingdom actually “provided a link to the text of the Budapest Memorandum itself with all six obligations, including the ones Russia has clearly violated — right there for everyone to see.”

Steven Pifer, an American diplomat who was involved in drafting the Budapest Memorandum, later commented that “what does it say about the mendacity of Russian diplomacy and its contempt for international opinion when the foreign minister says something that can be proven wrong with less than 30 seconds of Google fact-checking?”


110 posted on 03/28/2022 9:58:33 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com
I don't believe I have ever suggested that Russia was not violating the agreement. But (as I have noted repeatedly) the Budapest Memorandum in no way obligated the United States to provide a military defense for Ukraine if they were invaded by Russia. The fact that Russia violated the terms of the Budapest Memorandum, does not magically add any terms to the agreement (such as a US obligation to defend Ukraine) that were never there in the first place...

;>)

125 posted on 03/29/2022 5:09:51 AM PDT by Who is John Galt? ("...mit Pulver und Blei, Die Gedanken sind frei!")
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

Meaningless.

To commit the united STATES to something like that requires 67 SENATORS who represent and speak on behalf of the STATES who bear the burden of war. They do that by ratifying a TREATY.


134 posted on 03/29/2022 6:49:04 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Who saves the nation breaks no law)
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