The three presidents of Ukraine - Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma, and Viktor Yushchenko - call on the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum to prove that the document "was not a simple deception.
This is stated in the appeal of the three presidents of Ukraine to the signatory countries of the Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Budapest Memorandum), the text of which was published by Viktor Yushchenko on his Facebook page.
"Almost three decades ago there was an event whose echoes are shaking the world now. The five nuclear weapon states pledged to Ukraine to respect its independence and territorial integrity. The provision of security guarantees (which were the words in the title of the Budapest Memorandum signed by the superstates) was a condition of Ukraine's voluntary renunciation of its nuclear missile capabilities, at the time the third largest in the world, surpassing those of France, Britain and the PRC.
Now Ukraine can remember the solemn promises of the Big Four (we were grateful that China joined the memorandum) only as mockery," the text says.
The presidents note that back in 2014, Russia destroyed Ukraine's territorial integrity by occupying Crimea and part of Donbass, and today the threat of further military invasion is directed at Ukraine from three sides.
"We find ourselves facing the prospect of an economic blockade - an energy blockade from the north, a naval blockade from the south. Meanwhile, the inadmissibility of economic pressure on Ukraine was also recorded as one of the points of the Budapest Memorandum. What do we hear in response to such actions from the parties to the agreement, on whose protection and on whose determination we should have counted? Only appeals to their citizens and diplomats to flee dangerous Ukraine as quickly as possible. Only intimidating warnings of an invasion as not today, but tomorrow, which have caused enormous damage to our economy and sowed panic among the population," the appeal reads.
The presidents also stressed that Ukraine only hears "stern warnings" to the aggressor and that it will pay a "price," but it will not include Nord Stream 2 and SWIFT.
"When the big states made an agreement with Ukraine in 1994, they were actually saying: we don't want you to become an equal with us. We want to keep our monopoly. But we offer you, in exchange for real protection, our genuine support. Here is our word to you - the honest word of a strongman.
We believed then, although in 1994 one of the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum sadly warned in a private conversation: you are being cheated.
Today is a crucial moment, when it is still possible to prove that the Budapest Memorandum was not a simple deception.
That the strong can be honest and courageous... So prove your true strength," the presidents said in their address.
In the address, they also called for steps that could stop the aggressor rather than "reinforce the belief in impunity."
"If we lose today, there will be no more Budapest Memorandums. Looking at our experience, no country that can get nuclear weapons will give them up under any circumstances. So it's not just the fate of Ukraine and your global credibility that's at stake here. The future of global security is at stake. Don't forget it. And have the strength to be responsible!" - The presidents of Ukraine summed up.
