Ukraine rejects security guarantees alternative to NATO membership – media

The only real security guarantee for Ukraine and a deterrent to further Russian aggression is full NATO membership. Our country rejects formats that are alternatives to membership.

This is stated in a document obtained by "European Pravda".

"We are convinced that the only real security guarantee for Ukraine, as well as the deterrent against further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine's full membership in NATO," the statement reads.

The document also emphasizes that Ukraine is preemptively rejecting formats alternative to membership.

"Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not accept any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for full membership in NATO," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states.

Details of the statement

According to sources from European Pravda, Minister Andriy Sybiga plans to present this position at the NATO ministerial meeting starting on December 3 in Brussels. The extensive statement from Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented as a political position document, begins with references to the expectations from the so-called "Budapest Memorandum," signed in 1994 as part of an agreement for Ukraine to give up its nuclear arsenal.

"The memorandum was meant to be a significant step in strengthening global nuclear disarmament and serve as an example for other states to abandon nuclear weapons. However, it failed to prevent the aggression of the Russian Federation, a nuclear-armed state, against Ukraine, a state that had given up its nuclear arsenal," the statement reminds.

The Budapest Memorandum is described as a "monument to shortsightedness in making strategic security decisions." The statement notes that "building the European security architecture at the expense of Ukraine's interests, rather than taking them into account, is doomed to failure."

The core of the statement is a political declaration about what guarantees are potentially acceptable for Ukraine. As is known, in all the security agreements signed by Ukraine with other countries in 2024, it is emphasized that these are not substitutes for NATO membership, and therefore do not fall under that definition.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the USA and the United Kingdom, who signed the Budapest Memorandum, as well as France and China, who joined it, and all the states party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to politically support Ukraine's NATO invitation now. This would be an "effective counter to Russian blackmail."

The Ministry emphasizes that this is not only about Ukrainian and European security. The attack on Ukraine, contrary to the 1994 agreements, "undermined trust in the very idea of nuclear disarmament" and revived "active attempts by various countries, from the Indo-Pacific region and the Middle East to the Euro-Atlantic space, to create or expand existing nuclear arsenals."

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