Zelenskyy Calls Ukraine's Nuclear Disarmament a Major Mistake

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described his country's decision to give up its nuclear arsenal in 1994 as a "big mistake." He made these remarks during an interview for the British podcast The Rest Is Politics, hosted by journalists Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart.

In December 1994, Ukraine agreed to relinquish the nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union. In exchange, it received security assurances from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia under the Budapest Memorandum.

"When Ukraine agreed to give up nuclear weapons, the price paid by the other side should have been fair," Zelenskyy stated. "I believe that NATO membership is the minimum that Ukrainian leaders should have received in exchange for the nuclear arsenal. What did we get? Nothing. It was an unfair game and a big mistake."

The president argued that the other signatories of the Budapest Memorandum were obligated to provide Ukraine with a "security umbrella" since they requested its nuclear disarmament.

"In the end, it was all a deception," he added. "A significant part of our nuclear weapons was transferred to Russia. For example, strategic aircraft that Russia is now using against us in this war."

This is not the first time Zelenskyy has criticized this historic decision. In January 2025, he told Italian newspaper Il Foglio that previous Ukrainian authorities' choice to abandon nuclear arms was "stupid and irresponsible."

The following month, in an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, he suggested that sufficient security guarantees for Ukraine could have been provided if Western partners had transferred nuclear weapons to Kyiv. He argued this could have deterred Russia from launching another attack even without Ukraine joining NATO.