YSK that in 1994, Ukraine voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons. Europe and the United States promised they would defend Ukraine if it was ever threatened.

⁨683⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sijifec@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨youshouldknow@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crl3ndxglwxo

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

tal@lemmy.today ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The Budapest Memorandum committed the signatories not to themselves use force against Ukraine, but it was not a multi-way defensive alliance with all parties which obligated parties to fight against another party who attacked.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum

According to the three memoranda,[9] Russia, the U.S., and the U.K. confirmed their recognition of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine becoming parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and effectively removing all Soviet nuclear weapons from their soil, and that they agreed to the following:

Respect the signatory’s independence and sovereignty in the existing borders (in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act).[10]

Refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the signatories to the memorandum, and undertake that none of their weapons will ever be used against these countries, except in cases of self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine, the Republic of Belarus, and Kazakhstan of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.

Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if they “should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”.

Not to use nuclear weapons against any non–nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories or dependent territories, their armed forces, or their allies, by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state.[5]: 169–171 [11][12]

Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments.[13][14]

France and China were not signatories but apparently had similar agreements, which I have not read.

The UK and the US (and I assume China and France, if their agreements had approximately the same content) have fulfilled the Budapest Memorandum commitments — Russia broke her commitment.
source
- RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Something interesting to point out is that the Russia was not originally granted a permanent UN seat. That seat was granted to the USSR. The USSR was dissolved im 1991 and the Russian Federation just announced that they would take the permanent seat granted to the USSR. Most countries in the UN just accepted it without issue, but there was something important about this people may not know.
  
  The Russian Federation being granted the former USSR’s permanent seat was conditional: the Russian Federation was required and expected to uphold the responsibilites that the USSR had, as well as the USSRs treaties and agreements. Failure to uphold those commitments would mean the Russian Federation was in breach of their agreeement with the UN and should lose the seat formerly granted to the USSR.
  
  The USSR, interestingly enough, had signed many treaties recognizing the borders of its successor states before it was dissolved, one of which being Georgia. Thus the actions of the Russian Federation in Georgia in 2008 violated one of these USSR agreements they are required to uphold. This was a direct violation and one that is technically grounds for removal of the UN, at least removal from a permanent seat.
  
  However, its not that easy. The UN doesn’t actually have a protocol for removing a permanent seat member. It does, however, have a protocol for removing a member that repeatedly violates the UN charter, which does not specify that it does not apply to permanent members. This is a little more broad, and can extend to include the Russian Federation’s consistent abuse of its veto ability to shield itself and its allies from accountability, and its current actions in Ukraine that violate the Budapest Memorandum.
  
  source
  - tal@lemmy.today ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I mean, yeah, but in practice, the UN is structured the way it is, with the UNSC veto, to avoid creating World War III. That is, it’s aimed at avoiding great power conflict.
    
    Taiwan was functionally removed and replaced by China, but that was really a recognition that Taiwan didn’t really de facto control China, which was who the seat belonged to.
    
    Could Russia one day roll up to the UNSC and discover someone else sitting in their seat? Yeah, theoretically, but in practice, I don’t think that there’s a realistic chance that Russia would be removed from the UNSC seat as long as it’s running around with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, absent some kind of hard counter showing up that renders that arsenal useless.
    
    source
  - UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    The Russian Federation being granted the former USSR’s permanent seat was conditional: the Russian Federation was required and expected to uphold the responsibilites that the USSR had, as well as the USSRs treaties and agreements. Failure to uphold those commitments would mean the Russian Federation was in breach of their agreement with the UN and should lose the seat formerly granted to the USSR.
    
    Sure. But the mechanism by which the UN functions is such that the Security Council has extensive veto power over most actual policy set by the UN. Consequently, any effort to challenge Russia on its failed obligations or to penalize or remove them would be subject to… Russian veto of the action from the Security Council.
    
    That’s because the UN doesn’t exist to set policy against its primary member states. The UN exists to allow member states a neutral(ish) space to negotiate international policy amongst themselves and to organize against non-members and non-state-actors. Even if you could kick a $1T/year economy and largest sovereign landmass on the planet out of the body… who would benefit? Its not like removing Russia from the UN makes the country not-a-state. It’s not like the BRICS wouldn’t continue to coordinate amongst themselves independent of the UN. All you’ve done is cut the cord to the Little Red Phone that helps a future Russian President and a future American President from hashing it out before they launch nukes at one another.
    
    The USSR, interestingly enough, had signed many treaties recognizing the borders of its successor states before it was dissolved, one of which being Georgia. Thus the actions of the Russian Federation in Georgia in 2008 violated one of these USSR agreements they are required to uphold. This was a direct violation and one that is technically grounds for removal of the UN, at least removal from a permanent seat.
    
    You can single out the USSR on this technicality and hold Russia to it. But then you could single out the US for its extensive violation of the Geneva Convensions or its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords or any number of other historical treaties and associated promises.
    
    You could single out the US for the Hague Invasion Act if nothing else. But we won’t, for the same reason nobody’s seriously interested in ousting Russia (or China or the UK or France for that matter).
    
    source
bluGill@fedia.io ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The US promised to bring this to the UN security console and did. However Russia has veto rights on the UN security console and so this went nowhere.

source
- gressen@lemmy.zip ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Security council
  
  source
  - UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Security 360 Pro
    
    source
  - ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Maybe English isn’t their first luggage.
    
    source
  - JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    No no, it’s a really nice narrow table in an entry hallway, typically with a drawer.
    
    source
  - niemcycle@lemmy.ca ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    sudo rm -rf ~/nukes/
    
    source
- khannie@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That’s such a ridiculous thing to agree to, knowing that a country with a veto was the most likely aggressor. :(
  
  source
foggy@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
However, at the time, the person making and in charge of keeping that promise was not a Russian asset.

source
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
And so did russia

source
0nt0p0fth3w0rld@feddit.org ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
it was probably prep FOR whats happening now. these games arent new.

source
Cptn_Slow@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
USA: sends $170,000,000,000+ in aid…

The Rest of the World: “The USA isn’t doing enough!”

Where do you think Ukraine is getting it’s intelligence from?

source
- Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I think you overestimate that number, but that’s not the thing, the thing is slow walking aid just dragged everything out.
  
  Some saybit was Donald’s gift to putin, so putin could “finish” quickly, but Biden dlow walked things too, like forbidding the use of american weapons on russians depending were they were.
  
  A quick piwerful response was what we all wanted but didn’t get so here we are.
  
  source
  - greenbit@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The deliberately slow is for upholding a testing ground for USA/Russia/China military industry developing their drone & AI warfare. Maybe the powers that be will use that to eliminate us rest when we’re not useful enough anymore. Skynet by fascists
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Cptn_Slow@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Sorry, I guess we are being cheap, only contributing almost as much as everyone else combined.
    
    It’s always “the USA is bad” until someone needs something, and suddenly doing as much as everyone else combined isn’t enough.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  In a time when a person working full-time can’t even afford groceries, we should be involved in exactly zero wars abroad.
  
  I hate this country.
  
  source
- quick_snail@feddit.nl ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Lol wut. US “intelligence” is responsible for misleading people into war how many times?
  
  And how many people died because of it? Hundreds of thousanda of lives or millions?
  
  source
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Well that was dumb.

source