DISINFO: Russia had to launch a special operation to ensure a nuclear-free and neutral status for Ukraine
SUMMARY
Russia was forced to launch a special operation to ensure a nuclear-free and neutral status for Ukraine.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets justifying the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Russia's unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is not a "special operation" but an all-out war against a sovereign state. Russia has been coming up with different explanations and pretexts for its aggression. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII.
Ukraine has been a nuclear-free country since 1994 when the Budapest memorandum was signed.
The Budapest Memorandum is a document signed by Ukraine, Russia, the US and the UK. Under the memorandum, Ukraine promised to remove all Soviet-era nuclear weapons, which Ukraine received after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. On 24 October 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a statement on the country's nuclear-free status. Three years later, Ukraine joined the nuclear non-proliferation treaties.
In exchange, the leaders of the US, Russia and the UK signed the Budapest memorandum with guarantees on the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. Through the Budapest memorandum Russia pledged not to use any weapon against Ukraine, not just nuclear.
In this regard, Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, support of separatists in eastern Ukraine and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 by Russia are a clear violation of the international memorandum.
The European External Action Service has also noted that Russia violated several agreements by its actions against Ukraine, including the Budapest Memorandum.
Pro-Kremlin media outlets have repeatedly tried to downgrade the significance of the Budapest Memorandum, claiming that the document is merely a political statement.
As for the neutral status of Ukraine, Ukraine-NATO cooperation before Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 was aimed at enhancing Kyiv’s defence capabilities. After Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and instigated a separatist revolt in Donbas in 2014, Kyiv intensified co-operation with NATO and enshrined its Euro-Atlantic drive in its Constitution. NATO did not give Kyiv an exact timing for its possible membership, which means that the alliance did not want to turn Ukraine into an allegedly anti-Russian state.
Russia, on its side, was not entitled to interfere in relations between NATO and Ukraine because the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation signed in 1997 in Paris bans the signatories’ interference in each other’s actions.
By attacking Ukraine under the pretext of its possible membership of NATO, Moscow infringed on Kyiv's sovereign right to apply for or join any organisations that do not violate international law. Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO depends solely on decisions to be made by Ukraine on the one hand and NATO member states on the other hand. Russia’s aggression poses the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades, shattering peace in Europe and reinforcing the need for NATO to ensure that its deterrence and defence posture is credible and effective.