Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History

In December 1994, having received assurances within the Budapest Memorandum agreement that its sovereignty would be respected and secured by Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Ukraine gave up the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world and joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, endowing the nonproliferation regime with substantial momentum.

Based on original and heretofore unavailable documents, Yuri Kostenko’s account of the negotiations between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States reveals for the first time the internal debates of the Ukrainian government, as well as the pressure exerted upon it by its international partners.

Kostenko presents the Ukrainian view on the issue of nuclear disarmament and raises the question of whether the complete and immediate dismantlement of the country’s enormous nuclear arsenal was strategically the right decision for ensuring its sovereignty and territorial integrity, especially in view of the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, one of the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum.