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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia would not take part in its latest push to establish new security guarantees following Moscow’s failure to implement the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine agreed in 1994 to give Russia all its nuclear warheads in exchange for security guarantees.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reacted during a press conference after his talks with the President of the European Council in Kyiv on April 20, 2022 (SERGEY SUPINSKY / AFP via Getty Images)
The agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Russia, and by 1996 it had surrendered all its nuclear arsenals in accordance with what became known as the Budapest Memorandum.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February was a gross violation of the agreement.
“Today we are considering a set of security guarantors from trusted partner countries. We are developing this project with them, “Zelenksiy told Ukrainian news outlets.
“We have developed it,” he added, making it clear that Russia has not participated in this round of talks.
Russia’s more than three-month invasion has displaced nearly 13 million Ukrainians and an unspecified number of civilian casualties, with thousands estimated to have been wounded and killed.
However, Zelenski said the atrocities uncovered in Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the area in late March “changed some things”.
Volunteers carried the bodies of killed civilians to Bucha on Monday. (AP / Ephraim Lukacki)
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“We want a separate agreement,” he said. “Today, everything has reached the point where this agreement provides for a range of partner countries around Ukraine without Russia.
“Guarantees of security without Russia,” he added.
It is unclear which agreement Zelenski had in mind and with which countries, but a group of 40 senior international defense officials set up by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in April at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany is expected to grow on Monday.
“There are some countries that have shown interest in participating but have not been to the first meeting,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday. “There is no limit and we would like as many people as possible, many countries, to participate.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky examines the site of a recent battle in Bucha, near Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. Russia faces a new wave of condemnation after evidence emerged of what appeared to be premeditated killings of civilians in Ukraine. Ukraine. (AP Photo / Ephraim Lukacki)
“In your first iteration, you had countries in the Middle East, you had countries in the Indo-Pacific,” he said, referring to what became known as the Ukraine Contact Group. “It was not just Europe and it was certainly not just NATO. There was a real global community of countries that were interested in what was happening in Ukraine. “
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Zelensky said Ukraine’s new security agreements with foreign countries should not be a factor in peace talks with Russia.
The Ukrainian president said the war would end only through diplomacy, but noted that the agreement still seems far away.
“There are things we can’t finish except at the negotiating table,” he said. “We want to return everything, the Russian Federation wants not to give away everything.
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