"The Budapest Memorandum provided security guarantees for Ukraine. Initially, there were three main security guarantors for Ukraine, three strategic friends and partners of Ukraine – the USA, Russia, and Britain. France and China later joined. There were five states," Zelensky reminded. "Now we understand that these were not security guarantees... It was written as 'assurances' [...] These are the largest states, the nuclear five... Now we should find all those who came up with this and simply put them in prison."
According to the president, after the Russians occupied part of Ukrainian Donbas and Crimea, Ukraine sent letters to all security guarantors – the countries that signed the Budapest Memorandum three times over the years.
"What does the memorandum say? Ukraine conducts consultations if its territorial integrity is violated. And everyone should be at the consultations, everyone should come, everyone should meet urgently – America, Britain, Russia, France, China. Did anyone come? No. Did anyone respond to these official letters? Did anyone conduct consultations? No. Why? Because they didn’t care. Is that clear in Russian? Just as it didn’t matter in Russian, so it didn’t matter to all the other security guarantors of the Budapest Memorandum regarding this country, these people, and these security guarantees," Zelensky stated.
He mentioned that after the full-scale invasion by the aggressor country and one of the signatories of the memorandum, Russia, in February 2022, Ukraine also sent letters for consultations, and "no one responded" to them.
"The question is simple: can you trust this? No. No matter which of these five countries is sitting at the negotiating table, just a piece of paper saying 'trust us, we will save you'," Zelensky noted.
The head of state added that he discussed the Budapest Memorandum with newly elected US President Donald Trump, and they "have not finished this conversation yet."