Kinlore
5 December 1994

The Budapest Memorandum

As Ukraine gives up the Soviet nuclear weapons on its soil, Russia, the UK and the US assure it that its borders will be respected.

  • Budapest Memorandum (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
  • The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (5th ed.) — Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press (2022)

Well established statehoodwar

When the USSR collapsed, some 1,900 Soviet strategic nuclear warheads were left on Ukrainian soil, numerically the world’s third-largest arsenal. But command and control ran to Moscow, and Ukraine never had operational control of them.

The United States thought it safer for Russia to take custody of all the Soviet warheads, and Ukraine lacked the means to maintain or use them.

The memorandum was signed in Budapest on 5 December 1994, as Ukraine joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear-weapon state and committed to give up the warheads. Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States pledged to respect Ukraine’s independence and existing borders, and to refrain from the threat or use of force and from economic coercion against it.

  • Budapest Memorandum (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
  • The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (5th ed.) — Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press (2022)

The pledges were “assurances”, not binding guarantees, and the memorandum had no enforcement mechanism. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the United States and Britain responded with diplomacy and sanctions but did not act to reverse the annexation.

  • Budapest Memorandum (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
  • The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (5th ed.) — Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press (2022)
For many Ukrainians, the memorandum became a lesson that giving up the bomb without hard guarantees left them exposed. Specialists such as Mariana Budjeryn call the popular “we gave it away for nothing” story understandable but an oversimplification.

Why it matters today

Ukraine

Many Ukrainians see the memorandum as a lesson that giving up nuclear weapons without hard guarantees left them exposed, which helps explain their distrust of paper promises. Specialists note that the popular "we gave it away for nothing" version oversimplifies what happened.