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A treaty signed in 1994 by the US and Britain could pull both countries into a war to protect Ukraine if Putin's troops intervene. The Budapest Memorandum was signed by Bill Clinton, John Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma – the then-rulers of the USA, UK, Russia and Ukraine - as part of the denuclearization of former Soviet republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union Technically it means that if Russia has invaded Ukraine then it would be difficult for the US and Britain to avoid going to war. ... the [Budapest] Memorandum is legally binding.' It promises to...

Former President Bill Clinton has expressed remorse over his role in negotiating a 1994 deal that resulted in Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal, suggesting that Russia never would have invaded its smaller neighbor if it still had nukes. “I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons. And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons,” Clinton told Irish broadcaster RTE in an interview that aired Tuesday. The 42nd president was referencing a landmark post-Cold War deal in which then-Ukrainian President...

Writing on Twitter late Tuesday, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that “with his signature, the Evil Empire disintegrated” — a reference to Kravchuk’s pivotal role in disbanding the Soviet Union. “Thank you for the peaceful renewal of our Independence. We’re defending it now with weapons in our hands,” Reznikov wrote.Although Kravchuk was a communist leader who spent a lifetime fulfilling decrees written in Moscow, during the waning years of the Soviet Union his strongly nationalist line brought him head-to-head with Russia in a struggle over the Black Sea Fleet and Crimea, The Washington Post reported ahead of his first...

The inside story of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, when Kyiv returned its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for ‘assurances’ from Moscow and Washington. Immediately after Ukraine signed its final agreement to renounce nuclear weapons in 1994, the country’s first president, Leonid Kravchuk, grimly remarked: “If tomorrow Russia goes into Crimea, no one will raise an eyebrow.” As we now know, that isn’t all Moscow would attempt to reclaim. Recently released archival documents demonstrate how American officials, adamant about the country’s denuclearization, ignored the sentiments of Ukraine’s postcommunist leaders, who were desperate to secure their new country. ...snip... By...