According to Zelenski Kiev, he should have exchanged atomic weapons for "real safety guarantees" which then and now are Ukraine's membership of NATO. Instead, Kiev signed in 1994. Budapest Memorandum, by which Ukraine resigned from atomic arsenal in exchange for safety guarantees from the US, Russia and the UK, as well as respect for independence, sovereignty and existing borders of the country.
Empty promises
Zelenski pointed out that he presented his point of view to president Donald Trump. “I told him we traded atomic weapons for war,” the Ukrainian president stated in an interview. According to him, Trump assured him he understood him.
Before that, Zelenski repeatedly criticized the Budapest Memorandum. He stressed that Kiev turned to safety guarantors erstwhile Russia occupied Crimea and part of the Donetsk and Luhansk circuits, but they ignored their commitments. He so called the guarantees given to Ukraine "empty promises" and called for the "finding and imprisonment" of those who invented it all.
The president of Ukraine has besides previously accused Western countries of making false promises regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. “It has been decades, and that has not happened. This was unfair to Ukraine and the Ukrainians," he said. According to Zelensk, the United States, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary proceed to argue Kiev's accession to the alliance.
However, he pointed out that yet It's up to the president of the United States.. “If Donald Trump supports Ukraine’s accession to NATO, we will be in NATO,” said Zelenski.
