It became known about the negotiations between Yeltsin and the United States on the nuclear status of Ukraine
Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, negotiated with the United States because of Ukraine’s unwillingness to lose its nuclear status. This was announced by ex-member of the Russian Security Council Sergei Filatov, who also served as head of the presidential administration from 1993 to 1996.
His words are quoted by RIA Novosti.
According to Filatov, it was precisely to discuss this issue that Yeltsin went to the United States so that American diplomats would put pressure on the Ukrainian leadership – the policy did not suit the fact that a nuclear bomb was also involved in the differences between Russia and Ukraine.
“After that, negotiations began with the Americans, because it was necessary to have some influential country that would help us put pressure on the Ukrainian leadership so that they agreed to return the missiles to Russia,” Filatov told the agency.
Earlier it was reported that the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany announced the desire of Kyiv to return to the conversation about the nuclear status.
Ukraine had a nuclear status and possessed appropriate weapons from 1991 to 1994. Kyiv ranked third in terms of the number of nuclear weapons. In 1994, the heads of Ukraine, Russia, Great Britain and the United States signed a memorandum on providing Ukraine with security guarantees and the country’s renunciation of nuclear weapons. This treaty is known as the Budapest Memorandum.
The first president of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, among the reasons why Kyiv abandoned nuclear weapons, called the lack of financial ability to maintain nuclear weapons.