The Budapest Memorandum at 20: The United States, Ukraine and Security Assurances

On December 5, 1994, the leaders of Britain, Russia and the United States joined with the president of Ukraine to sign the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances for Ukraine. The document contained commitments by Britain, Russia and the United States to, among other things, respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and existing borders and not to use, or threaten to use, force against Ukraine. Over the past nine months, Russia has grossly violated its commitments under the memorandum by seizing Crimea, supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine, and sending its armed forces into Ukraine. What does that mean for Ukraine, for U.S. commitments under the memorandum and for the future of security assurances as a tool in limiting nuclear proliferation?

On December 9, the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative at Brookings hosted a panel discussion to consider the impact of Russia’s actions on security thinking in Ukraine and on the credibility of future security assurances in the global non-proliferation effort. Brookings Senior Fellows Robert Einhorn and Steven Pifer were joined by Oleksandr Zaytsev, a Fulbright scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.