In 1994, the U.S., U.K., Russia and Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum, which obliged Ukraine to give up what was then the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal, in return for security assurances about its sovereignty and borders. Russia has broken all the commitments it made at the time, while the Western allies have, so far, not lived up to the commitment to respond if the terms of the memorandum were violated.
Washington did not make a guarantee – something that presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton knew they could not get through Congress. But it’s already clear that the military assistance and sanctions that the U.S. and its allies have put in place are not halting the Russian advance.
What if our collective actions are not enough? Will the free world sit on its hands while Putin butchers the citizens of a European democracy?
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