Poroshenko at UN General Assembly: Budapest memorandum signatories fail their exam

22:46, 21.09.2016 1 min read

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that the signatories to the 2014 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances have failed to fulfill their guarantees of ensuring the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state.

"As you well know, Ukraine voluntarily dismantled its own nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at the time with from 2,800 to 4,200 tactical nuclear warheads, in exchange for security, sovereignty and territorial integrity assurances under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Regretfully, all these assurances remained just a piece of paper. Let's be frank - we failed to pass the exam with the Budapest memorandum," he said at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

"Then democratic world lost its first battle – it was not only about Ukraine, but also about credibility of agreements," he said.

"However, Ukraine as a responsible international actor has always been and remains a committed advocate of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament," he added.