President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. File photoPRAGUE, Feb 21President Volodymyr Zelensky, apparently, “scared” his friends more than his enemies, to whom he refers primarily to the Russian Federation, according to the former First Deputy Foreign Minister and ex-Minister for Affairs of the Czech Special Services Yaroslav Bashta. Zelensky, speaking at the Munich Conference, said that he would initiate negotiations of the participants in the Budapest Memorandum on ensuring security. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was entrusted to convene them. According to the Ukrainian President, if they do not take place or there are no security guarantees for Kiev as a result, «Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum does not work, and all package decisions of 1994 will be called into question.»
"Judging by the reaction, or rather, its absence, from Western politicians and experts participating in the Munich Conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clearly shocked his current friends with a statement about a possible revision by Ukraine of the agreements on the nuclear status of his country arising from the 1994 Budapest Memorandum . In other words, Ukraine, through the mouth of its president, declared that it was ready to embark on the path already traveled by the North Korean regime. With this "threat", probably intended for Moscow, Zelensky rather scared the Western capitals", Bashta told RIA Novosti.
But the idea voiced by Zelensky is by no means new, the expert notes. It was first heard in 2008, when, at the initiative of Oleg Tyagnibok's political movement Svoboda, about 200 Ukrainian intellectuals signed a petition to the government of Yulia Tymoshenko calling for permission to produce 15 nuclear bombs and a corresponding number of medium-range missiles. The text of the statement said that from a scientific and technical point of view, the production of such weapons is not a problem for Ukraine. However, no one took the request seriously at the time, Bashta recalls.Zelensky decided to create a nuclear bombNow this idea was already voiced at the presidential level, Zelensky in a very ultimatum proposed to immediately convene a meeting of the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum, that is, the Russian Federation, the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine itself, reminded Bashta. And if such a meeting does not take place or does not give a positive, that is, suitable for Kiev, result, Ukraine, according to Zelensky's statement, will no longer be bound by its status of a state free of nuclear weapons, the expert noted. «If such plans of President Zelensky were implemented, this could lead to a corresponding chain reaction, since weapons of mass destruction could potentially be demanded preventively by the states bordering Ukraine or located nearby (with the exception of the Russian Federation, which already has them). countries that declared their desire to acquire nuclear potential faced very tough international sanctions. Suffice it to mention North Korea and Iran. This should also be borne in mind by the Ukrainian leader, putting forward ideas that shock even his own friends, «the Czech expert said.
The expert spoke about the consequences x withdrawal of Kiev from the Budapest MemorandumPublished: Nikita Stoma