Ukraine is holding talks with the United States regarding the creation of the Council of Defense Ministers of Budapest Memorandum member states, Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Leonid Poliakov has reported.

"Acting Defense Minister of Ukraine Ihor Teniukh yesterday had a conversation with [U.S.] Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and one of the topics they covered was the possibility of the creation of a Council of Defense Chiefs of the Budapest Memorandum member states," he said a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

According to Poliakov, this council is to ensure the implementation of the conditions of the memorandum regarding the security of Ukraine and its territorial integrity.

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary, on December 5, 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.