If the summit of the countries participating in the Budapest Memorandum does not take place or does not provide security guarantees to Ukraine, then the document will be recognized by Ukraine as invalid along with the clauses that were signed in 1994.
This statement was made by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference.
The Budapest Memorandum provided for guarantees of the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for the renunciation of nuclear weapons, as Zelensky recalled.
"Ukraine wants peace. Europe wants peace. The world says it doesn't want to fight, and Russia doesn't want to attack. Some of us are lying. It's not yet an axiom, but it's no longer a hypothesis," he said.
Zelensky stressed that two days ago he was in the Donbas, on the demarcation line between Ukraine and the temporarily occupied territories, which he called the demarcation line between "peace and war." The President focused on how much shelling has become more frequent over the past days and how reckless it is to believe that shelling can be carried out from the Ukrainian side.
"For the rejection of the world's third largest nuclear potential, Ukraine received security guarantees. We do not have these weapons. We also do not have security. There is no part of the territory of our country, which is larger than Switzerland, the Netherlands or Belgium. And most importantly, there are no millions of our citizens. However, there is something. There is a right. The right to demand a transition from a policy of appeasement to ensuring guarantees of security and peace. Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations of the guarantor countries of the Budapest Memorandum. To no avail. Today, Ukraine will do this for the fourth time. I, as president , for the first time, but also as Ukraine, I will do this for the last time, I will initiate a consultation within the framework of the Budapest Memorandum, it is the mission of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. If it does not take place again or if there are no security guarantees for our state as a result, Ukraine will have every right to consider that the Budapest Memorandum does not work and all package decisions of 1994 are challenged" - he stressed.
