Ukraine Can’t Defend Itself Because Of 1994 Clinton Deal

If there is a Third World War former President Bill Clinton may be to blame. In a 1994 deal brokered under his administration Washington paid a half billion dollars to have Ukraine hand over to Russia what to this day remains the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

At the time Ukraine was among the most powerful nations on the face of the earth, with over 5,000 nuclear weapons and delivery systems such as nuclear submarines, 33 Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each and 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece. Russia was given almost the entire Black Sea Fleet, rights to bases in the Crimean Peninsula that were to exist until at least 2017 and all but one submarine which was seized in March 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.

Ukraine went from having more nuclear warheads than the United Kingdom, France and China combined to having to rely on the U.K. and United States for defense. In the deal known as the Budapest Memorandum the U.S. and the U.K. agreed to respect its “independence and sovereignty and the existing borders.” Belarus and Kazakhstan also gave up their smaller stockpiles in exchange for the same promises. Russia was to “refrain from the threat or use of force” against Ukraine, which it has repeatedly violated since 2014.

While the U.S. remains committed to the agreement, and has provided more than $2.8 billion since 2014 to help Ukraine defend itself, the deal is a political agreement and not a legally binding treaty. The vague language of the memorandum makes it more dangerous, had it concretely obligated the signatories to defend Ukraine if attacked that may have dissuaded Putin to invade. Currently 200 U.S. troops are stationed at a base in western part of the country and earlier this year the Trump administration sold Ukraine $47 million worth of Javelin anti-tank guided missiles.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Monday “We are appealing the entire pro-Ukrainian world coalition — we have to join our efforts, We are appealing to our partners in Budapest Memorandum that took on obligations to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

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