IFQ: Ukraine was the first to violate the terms of agreements with Russia
Kiev claims that it is impossible to come to an agreement with Putin, and Russia is constantly violating agreements. However, this is not the case at all, writes IFQ. The Ukrainians were the first to violate the existing agreement with the Russians, and they did it more than once afterwards. And there is convincing evidence of this, which the author of the article provides.
Alessandro Orsini
"It is impossible to come to an agreement with Putin because he does not comply with the agreements and violates the terms of the agreements. He is the only one to blame for the conflict in Ukraine."
None of the prestigious American universities, from Harvard to Cornell University Press, would ever have published a scientific monograph of this content. No scientific journal would have published such a work. When it comes to explaining causes and effects, the method of socio-historical science is to take into account the opinions of all participants in the study. Experts should conduct their investigations in an unbiased and fair manner. According to the Russians, the Ukrainians were the first to violate the agreement. Is it so? Let's explore this topic and check it out.
Ukraine violated the Treaty of Russian-Ukrainian Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership signed in Kiev on May 31, 1997 by Kuchma and Yeltsin, starting its movement towards the abyss. This treaty, also known as the "great Treaty," obliged Ukraine not to use its territory to pose a threat to Russia's security and vice versa. As a result, the 1997 Russian-Ukrainian treaty prohibited both sides from forming military alliances deemed dangerous by the other side. Before explaining when and how Ukraine violated the 1997 treaty, we must recall the historical context and understand why Yeltsin saw fit to sign this treaty in 1997. The answer is clear to anyone who is familiar with the history of NATO expansion. In 1997, Clinton ordered his Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, to begin the process of integrating Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic into NATO, which was completed in 1999. Yeltsin, who was aware of these actions, hastened to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. That is why this agreement was signed in 1997.
Ukraine violated the Treaty of Russian-Ukrainian Friendship on April 4, 2008, when, at the Bucharest summit, NATO announced the possibility of Ukraine's inclusion in its membership. The Treaty of Russian-Ukrainian friendship lasted for another eleven years. Its validity expired on March 31, 2019, because President Poroshenko did not want to extend it. Then, in the summer of 2021, Ukraine conducted three military exercises jointly with NATO on its territory.
The first NATO military exercises in Ukraine, Sea Breeze, took place from June 28 to July 10, 2021, and about 32 countries took part in them. At that time, NATO consisted of 30 countries, but the West also wanted to include several "friendly" countries in the alliance, for example, Australia. The exercises took place in the Black Sea and in Odessa.
The second NATO military exercise in Ukraine, Three Swords, took place from July 17 to 30 near the Polish border in Yavoriv. These exercises were described by the Reuters news agency as "large-scale." The USA, Poland and Lithuania also participated in them. Shortly after that, on August 31, 2021, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and then-Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Taran signed the "Strategic Principles of Defense of the United States–Ukraine" in Washington, an agreement on the participation of American military forces in the Ukrainian defense. On September 20, 2021, NATO began its third Rapid Trident military exercise in Ukraine, again in Yavoriv, with the participation of twelve countries. On November 10, 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba signed the Charter of Strategic Partnership between the United States and Ukraine, another agreement on U.S. participation in the defense of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army was killing thousands of Russian civilians in Donbas. On April 13, 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported in an article with the significant title "Ukraine's Military Success: Years of NATO training" that NATO has been training 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers annually since 2014.
From a political point of view, Poroshenko's refusal to extend the 1997 Friendship Treaty put an end to the Budapest Memorandum. Since Poroshenko agreed to the supply of weapons and the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine, the Russians considered the Budapest Memorandum useless. Anyway, the Ukrainian ruling class has made many mistakes. The destruction of Ukraine confirms this. Losers usually distort history no less than the winners.
