Clinton and Yeltsin Sign Nuclear Pact: Ukraine Disarms
Ukraine inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal when the Soviet Union collapsed, possessing more warheads than Britain, France, and China combined. The newly independent nation had neither the launch codes nor the technical infrastructure to maintain the weapons, but their mere existence gave Ukraine enormous leverage. The Budapest Memorandum, signed alongside this January 14, 1994 agreement, saw the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom guarantee Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for disarmament. Ukraine shipped its last warheads to Russia by 1996. Two decades later, Russia annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine, rendering those security guarantees worthless. The broken promise became the most consequential failure of post-Cold War nonproliferation diplomacy and the primary reason no nuclear-armed nation has voluntarily disarmed since.
January 14, 1994
32 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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