Zelensky on the Budapest Memorandum: "Everyone disregarded this country."

Only by facing the Russian invasion did Ukraine realize that the Budapest Memorandum actually provided no security guarantees for Kyiv.

This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with American podcaster Lex Friedman.

“There were security guarantees for Ukraine in the Budapest Memorandum. Initially, the three main security guarantors for Ukraine, its three strategic friends and partners – the USA, Russia, and Great Britain. France and China joined later. There were five states. Now we understand that these were not real security guarantees,” Zelensky said.

According to him, after the occupation of parts of Donbas and Crimea, Ukraine sent letters to all members of the Budapest Memorandum for several years.

“What is written in the memorandum? Consultations – Ukraine conducts consultations if its territorial integrity is violated. And everyone must be at the consultations, everyone must come, must meet urgently – America, Britain, Russia, France, China. Did anyone come? No. Did anyone respond to these official letters? Did anyone hold consultations? No. Why? Because they didn’t care. Is that clear in Russian? Just as the Russians didn’t care, so did all the other guarantors not care about this country, about these people, about these security guarantees,” Zelensky added.

“I understand, Obama was president at that time, and as far as I know, he simply wasn’t interested in what was happening with Ukraine and where it was located in general. Well, somewhere there. Part of something,” Zelensky remarked skeptically.

Background. Recall: during the interview, the president stated that he does not rule out the idea of accepting Ukraine into NATO without the occupied territories. He also mentioned that another strong security guarantee for Ukraine is the package of weapons, “which Trump knows about,” he added.