US special envoy Richard Grenell said that the nuclear weapons that were in the territory of Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR always belonged to Russia.
He shared his attempt to “clarify” the situation with the Budapest Memorandum on the social network “X”.
Grenell’s statement about Ukraine’s nuclear weapons caused a scandal
“Nuclear weapons belonged to Russia… Ukraine returned nuclear weapons to Russia. They did not belong to Ukraine…”, Grenell wrote.
This statement caused sharp criticism.
The world’s reaction to Grenell’s statement about the Budapest Memorandum
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, who participated in the conclusion of the Budapest Memorandum, called Grenell “categorically wrong”.
Pifer explained that the warheads were Soviet, not Russian, and were the responsibility of Ukraine. According to him, the missiles and bombers were dismantled in Ukraine (except for a small number transferred to the Russian Federation for debts), and the warheads were sent to Russia for dismantling precisely because Moscow pledged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Learn the full story,” Pifer advised Grenell.
Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger sharply criticized the statement of the US special representative Richard Grenell on the ownership of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Responding to Grenell’s claim that the weapons had always been Russian, Kinzinger wrote, using harsh language: “They were Soviet… So they were equally Ukrainian and Russian. This is basic knowledge.”
Kinzinger explained that the nuclear weapons were Soviet, inherited by Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, where they were located, although operational control over strategic weapons remained with Moscow.
«Кyiv Post»
