Ukrainian Foreign Minister: Budapest Memorandum needs to be revised
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin called on the United States to support the resumption of negotiations between the signatory countries of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 (the United States, Britain, Russia, Ukraine) on the settlement of the situation in the Crimea, annexed by Russia, and the Donbas, while speaking at a hearing of the US Senate Appropriations Committee on "Russian policy and intentions for individual European countries: the example of Ukraine."
We need US support in the resumption of negotiations of the sides which signed the Budapest Memorandum. The US must play a key role in the negotiations on the Crimea and the Donbas,” the minister said.
The supply of US defensive weapons and continuing military and technical support will send a signal to Russia and significantly improve Ukraine’s ability to defend its territory, he noted.
Klimkin also asked the senators to support the allocation of funds to Ukraine for security assistance, which are stipulated in the 2017 US defense budget.
Ukraine and the US need a long-term agreement for closer partnership and cooperation in the field of defense and security, according to Klimkin.
The Minister stressed the impossibility of easing sanctions against Russia until Ukraine's territorial integrity was fully restored.
Earlier, during a meeting in Washington with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the United States would continue to support Ukraine and US sanctions against the Russian Federation would remain in force until the Minsk agreements were fully implemented and the aggression and de-occupation of the Donbas and the Crimea was halted.