Memorandum.

This is coolbert:

As was discussed on the News Hour last night.

As is found at the wiki.

Info concerning the Budapest Memorandum.

I had forgotten all about this one. NOT legally binding [?] on the participants but nonetheless from twenty years ago most important given the current crisis in Ukraine.

That Budapest Memorandum giving "assurances" as to the integrity of Ukraine in return for the dismantling and relinquishment of a nuclear weapons capacity.

"The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear-powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. China and France later gave individual statements of assurance as well."

"The memorandum included security assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine as well as those of Belarus and Kazakhstan. As a result Ukraine gave up the world's third largest nuclear weapons stockpile between 1994 and 1996."

"Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, the U.S. stated that Russian involvement is in breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, and in clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity."

And as to the assurances, where do we go from here? Sanctions are a type of reprisal in response to clear breaches of the agreement? Expect nothing more?

So there is a legal basis or quasi-legal basis to the disagreement over Ukraine territoriality and sovereignty. NOT however a memorandum having the same status as a treaty? And expert out there understands this better?

coolbert.