In exchange for giving up nuclear weapons, Ukraine was supposed to receive NATO membership, Zelensky says
He stated this in an interview for the podcast The Rest Is Politics, Ukrinform reports.
"When Ukraine agreed to give up nuclear weapons, the price that the other side had to pay had to be fair. I think NATO membership was the smallest thing leaders of Ukraine had to get in exchange for the nuclear arms. What did we get? Nothing. It was not a fair game, and a big mistake," Zelensky said.
He emphasized that this was not only Ukraine's mistake but also the mistake of the other signatories of the Budapest Memorandum.
"These are nuclear countries. If they asked you to give up nuclear weapons, they should have provided you with a security umbrella. Perhaps a nuclear umbrella. Ultimately, all of it was a deception. Our nuclear weapons were largely transferred to Russia. For example, strategic aircraft that Russia now uses against us in this war," Zelensky noted.
As Ukrinform previously reported, at the Munich Security Conference, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated that future security guarantees for Ukraine must be reliable and real, not a "paper tiger" like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
On December 5, 1994, in Budapest, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed the Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine
