Bill Clinton Regrets Encouraging Ukraine To Refuse Nuclear Weapons

Otherwise, Russia might not have carried out a full-scale invasion.

Former US President Bill Clinton has expressed regret over his role in the nuclear disarmament of Ukraine in the 1990s, suggesting that otherwise Russia might not have carried out a full-scale invasion.

According to European Pravda, Clinton said this in an interview with Irish broadcaster RTÉ broadcast on Tuesday.

The former US president touched on the topic of a full-scale war in Ukraine while talking about the Northern Ireland peace process.

"I feel personally involved because I forced them (Ukraine - ed.) to agree to refuse nuclear weapons. And none of them believe that Russia would have done that (invasion - ed.) if Ukraine still had its weapons," he said.

Clinton said he knew that Vladimir Putin, unlike his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, would not have supported the equivalent of the Budapest Memorandum, a document that provided "security guarantees" to Kyiv in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons.

"They (Ukrainians - ed.) were afraid to let them (nuclear weapons - ed.) go because they thought it was the only thing that protected them from an expansionist Russia. Putin, when he saw an opportunity, broke the agreement and seized Crimea first. And I feel terrible because of this, because Ukraine is a very important country," he stressed.

The former US president stressed that Western support for Ukraine must remain steadfast.

"I think what Mr Putin did was very wrong, and I think Europe and the United States should continue supporting Ukraine. There may come a time when the Ukrainian government believes it can reach a peace agreement it can live with, but I don't think the rest of us should give up our support," he said.

In January 1994, Clinton signed a trilateral agreement with then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk to eliminate the arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons that remained on Ukrainian soil after the Soviet Union collapsed.

In December of that year, the United States also joined the Budapest Memorandum, which included Russia's commitment to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity.