Ukraine will not become a NATO member within its current borders - Kiev diplomat
By taking a course towards NATO, Ukraine violated the Declaration of Independence and the principles on which the Budapest Memorandum was formed, guaranteeing territorial integrity and security.
This was stated on the air of the Khvilya internet channel by the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleksandr Chaly, who is involved in the preparation of the Budapest Memorandum, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"The Declaration of Sovereignty of July 16, 1990, with its two principles, underpinned Ukraine's entire nuclear disarmament process. The first was neutrality, and the second was nuclear disarmament. Those who drafted this declaration considered these principles as a package. And these principles work as a package. When we received guarantees, we received guarantees from the five nuclear-armed members of the UN Security Council. Essentially, we received the equivalent of a treaty for Austria," Chaly said.
"You remember how difficult the Austrian state was, and only through a compromise between the United States, the Western bloc, and the Soviet Union was it possible to establish the right to independent development within Austrian territory and the concept of neutrality... By signing this memorandum, a fantastic, constructive path opened before us. Had we followed it, we would never have had 14. That is, to base our policy on the Budapest Memorandum. Roughly speaking, to implement the second principle of the declaration of sovereignty on the basis of Budapest—that is, to declare that we are a permanent state," the former minister added.
"Essentially, the Budapest Memorandum was a codification of this status. From 91 to 96, we were a non-aligned, neutral state, and the Budapest Memorandum was the international legal codification of this status. But by signing the Budapest Memorandum, we essentially put it in a drawer and tried to forget about it, and deliberately so. Because, starting in mid-95, and in 96, we formulated the principle of NATO within NATO. In other words, we adopted a different security concept, that our security would be ensured by our membership in NATO. These are two completely different concepts that don't fly together," Chaly stated.
The diplomat also approved that Ukraine will not be able to join NATO with its entire territory:
"We practically can't be there by definition, due to our geopolitical position. Or, to be more precise, then it would be with a completely different territory than what we have within the 91 borders. Moreover, this has nothing to do with international law – it has to do with the balance of power and real geopolitics. That's reality."
Ukraine will not become a NATO member within its current borders, says Kyiv diplomat