On December 5, 2022, we marked the 28th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum on Providing Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the Budapest Memorandum.

Having concluded this document with Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and the Russian Federation reaffirmed their obligations to respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. France and the People’s Republic of China have provided similar assurances in separate letters.

At the same time, the relevant obligations to Ukraine failed to be fulfilled. One of the guarantor states - the Russian Federation – has defiantly violated its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum and international law, by occupying part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine and unleashing a full-scale war against Ukraine.

Russian troops are committing war crimes and acts of terrorism in Ukraine, launching massive rocket and artillery attacks on the civilian targets, killing civilians and destroying critical civilian infrastructure.

By attacking the infrastructure of energy and water supply, Russia is trying to destroy the Ukrainian nation as part of a genocidal policy.

By shelling Ukrainian nuclear power plants and putting Europe on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe, Russia is also spreading a provocative rhetoric about the possible use of nuclear weapons, which endangers the security of the entire world. It is now critically important to consolidate the joint and decisive actions to ensure reliable deterrence and prevent any possibility of the use of nuclear weapons by the aggressor state.

The Budapest memorandum proves that no agreement with the Russian Federation works if Russia retains the physical ability and motivation to violate them. Russia's blatant violation of its obligations emphasizes the need to develop a new high-quality system of security guarantees for Ukraine and the world, which will effectively prevent any possibility for the Russian aggression to occur again. We call on our partners to continue working on the implementation of the recommendations of the Kyiv Security Treaty prepared by the international working group chaired by the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and the former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.