In Brussels, Tuesday, December 3, Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented himself with a bottle green document in his hands. Invited to the NATO Council of Foreign Ministers, the Ukrainian leader showed the press the “Budapest Memorandum”, a text supposed to specify the security guarantees that Ukraine was to receive from 1994, within the framework of its accession to the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The United States, the United Kingdom and Russia had pledged to guarantee Ukrainian territorial integrity in exchange for abandoning Soviet nuclear weapons stored on its territory. Thirty years later, while Russia occupies 18% of its territory, “this document failed to guarantee Ukrainian and transatlantic security. We must avoid repeating such mistakes”assured the minister. Therefore, he is only waiting for one thing to ensure the long-term security of his country: full membership in the Transatlantic Alliance.
“Ending the hot phase of the war »
Failing to be able to obtain it in the short term, kyiv would like to receive from the Alliance a formal “invitation” to join it, in the long term. Ukrainian leaders are increasingly demanding it, a few weeks before Donald Trump takes office as American president. “Ukraine’s invitation to join NATO is necessary for our survival”assured, Sunday 1is décembre, Volodymyr Zelensky. « If we want to end the hot phase of the war, we must bring under the auspices of NATO the territory of Ukraine that we control “, he declared two days earlier to the British channel Sky News. “ This is what we need to do quickly, and then Ukraine can get the other part of its territory back through diplomatic channels “, he added.
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Within the Alliance, while Russia continues its murderous attacks on Ukraine, Donald Trump prepares his return to the White House and Germany is in the middle of an electoral campaign, the question of an invitation for kyiv to Joining the Alliance is not the priority, however. Ukraine is well aware of this, but it insists on obtaining real “ security guarantees » in the event of a negotiation, more effective guarantees than the Budapest memorandum, negotiated in the wake of the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
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