The Day the Budapest Memorandum Was Signed, in Photos
This December 5th marks the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum—an agreement meant to provide security assurances to Ukraine in exchange for its decision to give up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal.
The path to this agreement began on January 14, 1994, when the leaders of Ukraine, the United States, and Russia signed a trilateral statement to remove all nuclear weapons from Ukrainian territory. This eventually led to the signing of the Budapest Memorandum on December 5, 1994, by Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. France and China, while not signatories, issued separate statements supporting the security assurances provided to Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
At its core, the memorandum required the signatories to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and borders—principles that Russia has since violated. A key condition of the agreement was that nuclear powers would never use nuclear weapons against Ukraine—a condition Russia threatens to violate.
“Russia’s violation of the Budapest Memorandum set a dangerous precedent that undermined confidence in the very idea of nuclear disarmament,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry stated.
The signing of the Budapest Memorandum, how it was: