Despite a handful of Western media outlets claiming a relatively unknown treaty binding the United States and Great Britain to the defense of the Ukraine may lead to armed conflict with Russia, a closer look indicates that American and British intervention may not be in the offing, as reported by the right-of-center American Spectator and France24.com on Mar. 3, 2014, and London’s The Telegraph and The Daily Mail on Feb. 28, 2014.
With at least 2,000 heavily armed Russian troops effectively occupying strategically key areas in the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, former Ukrainian President Yulia Tymoshenko openly declared:
Vladimir Putin knows that by declaring war on us, he is declaring war on the guarantors of our security — the U.S. and Great Britain.
Despite Tymoshenko’s claim of war, a closer examination casts doubt on her assertion.
Unknown by most Yanks and Brits, The Budapest Memorandum (officially titled the Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) was signed off on by both Western powers as well as the Ukrainians and Russians in 1994.
The Ukraine agreed to surrender their sizable nuclear weapons arsenal directly to Moscow, with the guarantee of no future interference from the Russians in the independence and sovereignty of the Ukrainian nation and her citizens.
With The Budapest Memorandum comes the pledge from both the United States and the United Kingdom to ensure, among other specifics, that the former World War II Big Three agree to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” as well as to “reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity.”
By terms of the agreement the Big Three are, on paper at least, honor and and are legally bound to “reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine … if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression…”
If, after undoubtedly much talk in the United Nations, the Russians are eventually found to officially be in violation of the agreement, the American Eagle and the British Bulldog are forbidden from launching air strikes against the Russian Bear. The only thing the West could launch in defense of the Ukraine only comes in the form of diplomatic protests.
