5th December 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum. This document was supposed to provide Ukraine with guarantees of security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity in exchange for giving up the world’s 3rd-largest nuclear arsenal. The Memorandum was to become a significant step in strengthening global nuclear disarmament and serve as an example for other states to give up nuclear weapons. In 2014, the Russian Federation, a guarantor of Ukraine’s security under the Memorandum, launched its aggression against Ukraine, which escalated into a full-scale invasion in 2022. The Budapest Memorandum failed to prevent the aggression of the Russian Federation. Russia’s violation of the Budapest Memorandum set a dangerous precedent that undermined confidence in the very idea of nuclear disarmament. Failure of the Memorandum to fulfill its functions has led to a catastrophic increase in security threats not only for Ukraine but also for other countries and regions. Today, the Budapest Memorandum is a monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making. It should serve as a reminder to the current leaders of the Euro-Atlantic community that building a European security architecture at the expense of Ukraine’s interests, rather than considering them, is destined to fail. Not providing Ukraine with real, effective security guarantees in the 1990s was a strategic mistake that Moscow exploited. This mistake must be corrected. Ukraine must be provided with clear, legally binding security guarantees that align with its significant contribution to global nuclear disarmament and the maintenance of international peace and security. We call on the US and the UK, signatories to the Memorandum, France and China, which have acceded to it, and all states-parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to support the provision of effective security guarantees to Ukraine. The only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO. With the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not accept any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for Ukraine’s full membership – Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Intelligence reports indicate that 2,000 North Korean military personnel have been deployed to combat units of the Russian army, assigned to marine brigades and airborne divisions.