Ukraine is not ready to see or use the term "assurances" in a future comprehensive document on security guarantees. After all, this is the term that was spelled out in the Budapest Memorandum. This was stated in an exclusive interview with LB.ua by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oksana Markarova.
"I think that the word 'assurances' is not the term we are ready to use or see in any documents after the Budapest Memorandum," the diplomat said.
According to her, Ukraine worked on the mistakes after the Budapest Memorandum, which was supposed to guarantee the security and integrity of Ukraine's borders, did not work and was violated by one of the guarantor countries, Russia.
"The issue of guarantees for Ukraine is extremely important. We worked on mistakes and conclusions from the history of the Budapest Memorandum. We had the third-largest nuclear capability, which was voluntarily given in exchange for what Ukraine considered guarantees. And it turned out to be an assurance. And in 2014, it turned out that even the assurances did not work. Therefore, Ukraine is now saying that we must not only win this war, not only get a just peace but also have guarantees that this peace will be preserved," Markarova said.
Earlier, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in an interview with “European Pravda” that Washington was ready to talk about security assurances, not security guarantees.