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Ukraine - Neutrality

"The neutrality of Ukraine, located between the powerful power centers - NATO and Russia, creates a zone of "vacuum of security", "vacuum of responsibility" on the territory of Eastern Europe, which causes temptation to forcefully, with the help of military or economic pressure, to change the geopolitical situation. Such a situation is a threat to the national interests of Ukraine, which consist in ensuring the stable and independent development of the country.

"The location of such neutral countries as Sweden and Finland is significantly different from the geopolitical position of Ukraine. Ukraine is a geostrategically important state that provides access to the Black and Azov Seas and to Central Europe. Therefore, control over Ukraine provides geopolitical advantages for a potential aggressor. Neutrality is expensive for any country, and most importantly for its citizens. After all, in this case, the state must ensure the formation, full equipment and full functioning of absolutely all types and types of troops. Protection of the country's territory must be ensured in all geographical directions. Even in relatively safe Western and Northern Europe, neutral countries spend more on defense than NATO members on average....

"European countries of traditional neutrality (Austria, Sweden, Switzerland) cannot be considered as a model for Ukraine. The specificity of the mentioned countries is that they are territorially surrounded by democratic countries that belong to NATO and the EU. The threat of an armed conflict around these states is minimal."" [Jasnyk 21. Neutrality poses a threat to Ukraine's security and is extremely expensive for the state]

Since the independence of Ukraine in 1991, the state had declared its intention to become a neutral state. However, at the legislative level, Ukraine established its neutral status in 2010 under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. After the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and the escape of Yanukovych, the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the Ukrainian parliament abandoned the policy of neutrality. At the beginning of 2019, it voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, and since then membership not only in the European Union, but also in NATO has become a legally established national goal of the country.

The Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine dated July 16, 1990, om which was based on the Act of Proclamation of Independence of Ukraine dated August 24, 1991, approved by the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens at the All-Ukrainian referendum in 1991, and defines the main principles of state neutrality of Ukraine.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, formed in accordance with the initisl legislation of Ukraine, were created to protect the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Ukraine for the minimum purposes necessary only for defense.

State neutrality of Ukraine involved maintaining peaceful and mutually beneficial cooperation with members of international cooperation according to generally recognized principles and norms of international law: peaceful coexistence, sovereign equality of states, non-use of force or threat of force, inviolability of state borders, territorial integrity of states, peaceful settlement of disputes, non-interference, cooperation of states and conscientious fulfillment of obligations under international law.

The policy of state neutrality of Ukraine provides for the refusal of: signing of military duties or international treaties of military direction; permission to place military bases, other associations of warring parties; participation in interstate associations, which is incompatible with neutrality; transfer of warships, weapons, ammunition, other military materials to warring parties; provision of state loans for war; cooperation in the production of weapons with warring parties.

Ukraine may participate in peacekeeping measures at the request of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other international structures of which Ukraine is a member, provided that Ukraine's neutrality is taken into account and guaranteed, in accordance with the procedure provided for by the Constitution of Ukraine.

In 2022, Russia demanded the "demilitarization" of Ukraine - "an unthinkable demand for a neutral country. Ukraine - like Sweden or Switzerland - must have its own defense capabilities. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi gave an interview 27 March 2022 to a group of Russian journalists in which he commented on Russia's demands on Ukraine. According to Zelensky, the demands of the Russian Federation regarding the so-called "denazification" and "demilitarization" are rejected by the Ukrainian side. "We do not discuss this at all. We will not sit down at the table at all if we talk about some kind of "demilitarization", some "denazification". For me, these are completely incomprehensible things. We are not interested in these points at all," he said.

Ukraine had already become convinced that international guarantees are worth little. In 1994, according to the Budapest Memorandum, it undertook to give up nuclear weapons, which were left to it as a result of the collapse of the USSR. Instead, Russia, the United States and Great Britain pledged to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. 20 years later, Russia annexed Crimea, and the two Western states that signed the Budapest Memorandum turned a blind eye to it.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a member of the negotiation group with Russia, said that Ukraine needs "security guarantees", but they must be "Ukrainian" and absolute. This is stated in Podoliak's comment posted on his Telegram channel 16 March 2022. "Real, not protocol or Budapest. And this means that the signatory parties to the guarantees do not stand aside in the event of an attack on Ukraine as today. They take an active part on the side of Ukraine in the conflict and officially ensure the immediate supply of the necessary amount of weapons to us", - the message said. Podolyak's statement was a response to the reply of the head of the Russian delegation, Volodymyr Medinsky, that Ukraine allegedly offered an "Austrian" or "Swedish" version of its neutrality. In addition to neutrality for Ukraine, Medynskyi said that the negotiations raise, in particular, the issue of the status of Crimea, as well as the territories controlled by pro-Moscow separatists for years. Also, on March 16, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Serhiy Lavrov, stated that a number of wordings of agreements with Ukraine regarding neutral status and security guarantees were "close to agreement."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi gave an interview 27 March 2022 to the Russian mass media for the first time since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine. In this conversation, for the first time, he publicly commented on the main points of the demands of the Russian side at the negotiations on the end of the war. One of the main ones is the neutrality of Ukraine, regarding which Zelenskyi said that Ukraine would agree to it under two conditions: an agreement on security guarantees and the holding of an all-Ukrainian referendum on this issue. The latter can be held in Ukraine only under the condition of the withdrawal of Russian troops, Zelenskyy added.

According to Zelenskyi, security guarantees, neutrality and nuclear-free status of Ukraine are the most important points. "We are ready to go for it," he said. At the same time, the Ukrainian president named two important steps that should accompany this process.

The first is an agreement on security guarantees. "I am interested in this not being another piece of paper a la the Budapest Memorandum. We are interested in this paper turning into a serious agreement that will be signed (...) by all the guarantors of this security. It must be ratified by the parliaments of the countries - guarantors," he explained.

The second is the all-Ukrainian referendum. "There must be a referendum in Ukraine," he said. At the same time, Zelensky emphasized that a referendum is impossible while Russian troops are present in the country: "From the point of view of the convention, no one will ever count the results of the referendum if there are troops or armed illegal formations on the territory of the country, or legal formations of another state without any legal foundation."