The President's Office explained why the head of state Volodymyr Zelensky wants to find out from Ukrainians in the course of an all-Ukrainian poll what they think about the right of Ukraine to use the security guarantees defined by the Budapest Memorandum to restore its state sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The press service of the president noted that the Memorandum on Security Guarantees itself was underestimated among the documents created in the 90s.
— The content of this document is that Ukraine, giving up the third most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world at that time and, accordingly, making the largest post-World War II contribution to global peace and security, received guarantees from the leading military states of the world regarding the unshakability of its security and of the existing borders, the press service noted.
The President was reminded that the signatories of the Memorandum undertook:
— refrain from the threat of force or its use against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and no weapon will ever be used against Ukraine;
— to refrain from economic pressure aimed at subordinating Ukraine's exercise of the rights inherent in its sovereignty to its own interests and thereby obtaining any advantages.
— Analyzing the Budapest memorandum, we come to the conclusion that security guarantees regarding Ukraine were violated long before 2014. For example, it is worth recalling the well-known border standoff in 2003 in the conflict around the island of Tuzla, which threatened the territorial integrity of Ukraine. No less dangerous can be considered the so-called gas wars, which is a manifestation of conscious economic pressure aimed at subordinating Ukraine to its own interests, the message says.
— The world did not react properly to such violations of obligations by one of the signatories of the Memorandum, which increased over the years, eventually leading to direct armed aggression. Moreover, such a blatant disregard of the security obligations to Ukraine will call into question the weight of the signatures and promises of the representatives of the guarantor states under the Budapest Memorandum for any other country in the world. Who then will fulfill other similar arrangements? Ignoring the obligations of signatories to the Budapest Memorandum to Ukraine calls into question the entire corpus of international treaties on non-proliferation and control of weapons of mass destruction, the Office added.
Zelensky emphasized that the non-implementation of the Budapest memorandum can block the achievement of new diplomatic solutions in the field of global security. For this reason, the president insists on "the need for joint work of other guarantor states to restore the security and territorial integrity of Ukraine."
- We would like to emphasize that this is not the position of one of the political teams in Ukraine - the ruling team. This can be a national position, which is much stronger. That is why President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed the fifth question for the nationwide poll on October 25, 2020 on the Budapest memorandum: "Does Ukraine need to raise the question today at the international level: do all the signatories of the memorandum fulfill their obligations, or no one?". Our state needs a mandate from the people in order to turn to the states that have signed the Memorandum to fulfill their obligations, - the Office summarized.
The message also emphasizes that the poll is not the same as a referendum, and therefore the results of the poll will not have legal consequences.
— The application of such a form of direct democracy is necessary in order to fix the will of the people and already with this political mandate to build state positions — summarized Zelensky.
