The Budapest Memorandum, to which Russia is a signatory, guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Yet Russian propaganda now claims that the invasion is legitimate because Kyiv has “grossly violated” the principles of the OSCE.
NEWS: Moscow in no way violates the Budapest Memorandum, which “played an important role in its time”, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, told an interview to the Hungarian YouTube channel Ultrahang. […]
He emphasized that, in the context of preparations in Budapest for a potential Russia–US summit, many had claimed that holding the meeting there would be “humiliating, because Budapest is where the guarantees for Ukraine were once signed, and this would evoke very negative associations”.
“Those who say such things have never actually read the Budapest Memorandum”, Lavrov argued. “It simply states that Ukraine, like other ex-Soviet republics that renounced nuclear weapons, would receive the same guarantees that nuclear powers extend to non-nuclear states. That’s all”. According to Lavrov, these guarantees mean only that nuclear weapons will not be used against non-nuclear states party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“At the same time”, Lavrov continued, “apart from the Budapest Memorandum, the same parties signed a declaration in which they officially committed to upholding all principles of the OSCE, including the rights of national minorities, democracy, freedom of expression and so forth. All these obligations, reflected in OSCE documents and reaffirmed during the adoption of the Budapest Memorandum, have been grossly violated by Kyiv”.
NARRATIVES: 1. It was not Russia, but Ukraine that violated the Budapest Memorandum. 2. The Memorandum concerns only nuclear guarantees. 3. Russia’s actions in Ukraine are legitimate, because Kyiv violates OSCE principles.
PURPOSE: To justify military aggression against Ukraine through a false interpretation of international law. To rehabilitate Russia’s international image and promote the idea that Moscow honors its commitments. To discredit Kyiv and Western states by distorting the meaning of the Budapest Memorandum.
Fact: By attacking Ukraine, Russia violated the Budapest Memorandum and several other international agreements
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994, guarantees Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in exchange for Kyiv renouncing its nuclear arsenal inherited from the USSR – at the time the third largest in the world, after those of Russia and the United States. As a Memorandum signatory, Russia pledged “to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine”, without restricting these obligations to scenarios involving nuclear weapons. The Memorandum contains no clause limiting the guarantees to “non-use of nuclear weapons”, as Sergey Lavrov claims.
The document explicitly forbids any use of force – nuclear or conventional. Russia, the USA and the UK pledged to observe Ukraine’s sovereignty and abstain from coercion or aggression of any kind.
Since 2014, Russia has repeatedly violated this commitment – first by annexing Crimea, then by occupying parts of Donbas. From 2022 onward, Russia launched a full-scale invasion. These actions represent the use of military force against a sovereign state, violating not only the Budapest Memorandum, but also numerous other international agreements. Russia has successively breached nearly every document governing its relations with Ukraine and European security at large: the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against another state; the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter, both of which safeguard European borders and sovereignty; the Almaty Declaration, by means of which Russia recognized ex-Soviet borders; the Budapest Memorandum, which reaffirmed Ukraine’s independence in exchange for nuclear disarmament; the 1997 Russia–Ukraine Friendship Treaty, which enshrined mutual observance of sovereignty and territorial integrity; the 2003 Bilateral Border Treaty, which confirmed existing frontiers; and the Minsk Agreements, designed to halt the war in Donbas but exploited by Moscow as diplomatic cover while it continued to fuel the conflict. This pattern reveals a consistent strategy: Russia signs peace and security agreements only to systematically violate them, annexing territories and launching acts of military aggression. This history explains why Ukraine now demands real security guarantees with enforceable mechanisms, not mere promises on paper.
Lavrov’s argument that Ukraine allegedly violated minority rights or OSCE principles is legally irrelevant. Neither the OSCE, nor any other international mechanism authorizes a state to use military force to “punish” supposed violations by another sovereign state. Even if such internal issues did exist, they must be addressed through diplomatic and multilateral mechanisms, not an invasion. The OSCE’s role is to observe and report, not to issue “licenses” for intervention. Ukraine has not committed any act of aggression against Russia and has not violated the Memorandum in a way that would, under international law, justify military intervention.
In fact, Moscow has inverted the truth: Russia is the actual aggressor. It has used military force, occupied Ukrainian territories and altered borders by violence, breaching not only the Budapest Memorandum, but also mandatory norms of international law concerning sovereignty, territorial integrity and the non-use of force. Even if the Memorandum is considered soft law, its principles remain binding in spirit and intent. Russia’s claim to act based on the Memorandum is legally baseless and politically cynical. Lavrov’s statement that the Memorandum “played an important role” is disingenuous. That “role” actually served Russia’s interests alone: Moscow secured Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament, depriving Kyiv of deterrence and leaving it exposed to coercion and possible attacks.
BACKGROUND: Following a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, both reportedly agreed to meet in Budapest to explore a possible peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine. Conceived as a preliminary step towards broader negotiations, the summit was ultimately canceled amid major disagreements: Moscow demanded territorial recognition and Ukraine’s disarmament. In turn, Kyiv firmly rejected such prerequisites. Finally, European allies warned that an unstructured summit without parameters or guarantees would legitimize further Russian aggression. Ultimately, Washington announced that no such meeting was planned in the near future, and Trump said that he did not wish to participate in a meeting that would be “a waste of time”.
