Broglio: Ukraine’s 1994 nuclear disarmament a ‘truly prophetic gesture’ marred by war

Ukraine’s 1994 unilateral nuclear disarmament was “a truly prophetic gesture in favor of global peace,” although Russia has long since abandoned its pledge at the time to honor Ukraine’s sovereignty, said the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, the USCCB’s president, issued a Dec. 5 statement commemorating the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

The agreement, signed in Budapest, Hungary, Dec. 5, 1994, stipulated that Ukraine — having gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991 — voluntarily relinquish what was then the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal. The weapons had been amassed in Ukraine while that country was still under Soviet rule.

In exchange, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia pledged security assurances for Ukraine as it acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 1970 and to which 191 states are now party. Described by the United Nations as “the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime” and an “essential foundation” for nuclear disarmament, the treaty aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, further the goal of complete disarmament, and promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

In his statement, Archbishop Broglio noted also that “France and China variously echoed” the security promises of the Budapest Memorandum.

“Unfortunately, this pledge was broken by the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion in 2022,” said Archbishop Broglio.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, which continued aggression launched in 2014. Russia’s aggression has been declared a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.

Throughout the full-scale invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin state media personalities have routinely threatened the possibility of engaging in nuclear attacks on Ukraine, the U.S. and European nations. On Nov. 19, Putin announced a change in Russia’s nuclear doctrine enabling a lower threshold for launching a nuclear attack after the U.S. authorized Ukraine’s use of longer range missiles to strike military targets inside Russia.

In March 2022, Russian forces seized Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest such facility in Europe, and have been accused of routinely endangering the plant’s functionality while disregarding multiple calls from the U.S. and other nations to return the plant to Ukraine’s control.

The Permanent Synod of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishops, led by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, declared in a March 2024 statement that “the 1994 Budapest memorandum signed by Russia, the US, and the UK is not worth the paper on which it was written.” Their statement warned, “So it will be with any agreement ‘negotiated’ with Putin’s Russia.”

“As the bitter conflict rages, with mounting civilian deaths and widespread displacement, we commemorate the time when the Ukrainian people opted for life, liberty, and peace, courageously envisioning a world free of nuclear weapons,” said Archbishop Broglio in his statement.

He noted that as Ukraine marked 1,000 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Pope Francis had written to Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, “to express his solidarity with the suffering people of Ukraine.

“We join our Holy Father in reaffirming his call for peace when he said, ‘It is this word — peace — unfortunately forgotten by the world today, that we would like to hear resound in the families, homes, and squares of dear Ukraine,'” said Archbishop Broglio.

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