On that early-June day in 1996, the American secretary of defence, William J. Perry, joined his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in ceremonies marking the completion of Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament. Under Western pressure, Ukraine had agreed to give up the weapons it inherited with the breakup of the Soviet empire in exchange for a Russian and Western security guarantee.
Ukraine gave up its inherited nuclear weapons an estimated 1,900 warheads that at the time constituted the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world after getting the security assurance it wanted. It is known as the Budapest Memorandum, named for the Hungarian capital, which was signed in 1994 by the United States, Britain, and Russia. Its words seem to defy the reality of today’s Ukraine crisis.
The three signatory nations pledged to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine. They promised to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. And said none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the charter of the United Nations.
Thus began a long road to today’s crisis in which Ukraine’s future may be in doubt. It already has lost control of the eastern Donbas region bordering Russia, following Russian intervention in 2014 in support of separatists. That same year, Russia seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
After those Russian moves, the United States and NATO distanced themselves from Russia, and Washington has provided substantial but still limited military assistance to Kyiv. Ukraine continues to seek closer ties to the West, including membership in the NATO alliance, which Putin sees as a threat to Russia for having expanded eastward toward its borders multiple times since 1999.
This will be the most consequential thing that’s happened in the world, in terms of war and peace, since World War II, he said.
Among the US officials at Pervomaysk for the sunflower planting in 1996 was Ashton Carter, who years later would become secretary of defence. In a memoir, Carter recalled Ukraine’s decision to disarm, which he saw as marking the true end of the Cold War that divided Europe for nearly half a century.
He said it showed that even insecure nations can give up the awesome destructive power of nuclear weapons placing their trust instead in a world order dedicated to peace and a powerful America dedicated to international partnerships.
At the time, Perry spoke of prospects for a permanent season of peace. But looking back, he concluded that the spirit of goodwill was all too short-lived.
“I am saddened to realise,” he wrote in 2015, that such a scene and such cooperation are unthinkable today.AP National Security Writer Robert Burns covered the 1996 ceremony at Pervomaysk where Perry and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts planted sunflower seedlings, as well as other Perry visits associated with Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament.
(Edited by : Yashi Gupta)
First Published: IST