The Ambassador of the United States to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, says the Russian Federation does not comply with the obligations under the Budapest Memorandum, in contrast to the US and the UK, which fully comply with them.
"I believe that the United States and the United Kingdom fully adhere to the Budapest memorandum. I should recall that the signatories of the Budapest memorandum confirmed their readiness to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and not to use force or the threat of force," Yovanovitch stated in an interview to RBK-Ukraine made public on 21 December.
"The memorandum calls for consultations in case of any issues. In March 2014 the United Kingdom, the United States and Ukraine gathered in Paris, but Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia did not attend these consultations. This considered, we believe that it was the Russian who failed to comply with its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum," she said.
Yovanovitch believes that the sanctions policy towards Russia will continue despite the change of US administration.
"The sanctions policy will last as long as Russia fully meets the provisions of the Minsk Agreements. Clearly, there is a separate package of sanctions against the Crimea and these sanctions will be lifted only when Crimea is returned to Ukraine," assured the diplomat.
The existing borders of Ukraine were guaranteed by the United States, Great Britain and Russia according to the Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Budapest Memorandum) in 1994.
However, in 2014 one of the signatory states of the memorandum annexed Crimea and then sent troops into the territory of Donbas. Russia says it is in compliance with the Budapest deal as it does not threaten Ukraine with nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, the efforts of the US and the UK to help Ukraine protect its territorial integrity proved limited. In particular, Ukraine was denied lethal weapons.