Updated / Tuesday, 4 Apr 2023 22:48
By Miriam O'Callaghan
Prime Time Presenter
Former US president Bill Clinton has expressed regret in an RTÉ interview about his role in persuading Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in 1994.
Mr Clinton suggested that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Kyiv still had its nuclear deterrent.
Mr Clinton addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine when he spoke to Prime Time about his role in the Northern Ireland peace process and assessed recent developments.
"I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons. And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons," he said.
In January 1994, Mr Clinton signed a tripartite agreement with the then presidents of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, and Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, to eliminate the arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons which remained on Ukrainian soil after the fall of the Soviet Union. The United States was also party to a related agreement later in the same year, which included Russian commitments to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity.
These commitments were broken in 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and further shattered when it began a wider war against Ukraine last year.
"I knew that President Putin did not support the agreement President Yeltsin made never to interfere with Ukraine's territorial boundaries - an agreement he made because he wanted Ukraine to give up their nuclear weapons.
"They were afraid to give them up because they thought that's the only thing that protected them from an expansionist Russia," Mr Clinton said.
"When it became convenient to him, President Putin broke it and first took Crimea. And I feel terrible about it because Ukraine is a very important country."
Mr Clinton said western support for Ukraine should remain steadfast.
"I think what Mr. Putin did was very wrong, and I believe Europe and the United States should continue to support Ukraine. There may come a time when the Ukrainian government believes that they can think of a peace agreement they could live with, but I don't think the rest of us should cut and run on them."
Mr Clinton's admission of regret was "very frank," University of Galway law lecturer, Larry Donnelly, told Prime Time.
"It is understandable in light of everything that has happened why he feels that regret that he does," Mr Donnelly said. "At the same time, it is understandable why he did what he did, trying to denuclearise the world, trying to improve relations and engage constructively with Russia...Of course it is also understandable why the Ukrainian people are angry about that."
Mr Donnelly also said it was surprising that the US role in denuclearising Ukraine "hasn’t featured more prominently in the debate in the United States about whether supporting Ukraine is the right thing, or not, to do.
"A lot of Americans say, 'this is a problem very far away from us, why should we be involved,’ but I think a lot of them could be moved at a moral level if they saw the United States’ role in what happened in 1994" when Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons.
By Miriam O'Callaghan
Prime Time Presenter
Former US president Bill Clinton has expressed regret in an RTÉ interview about his role in persuading Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in 1994.
Mr Clinton suggested that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Kyiv still had its nuclear deterrent.
Mr Clinton addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine when he spoke to Prime Time about his role in the Northern Ireland peace process and assessed recent developments.
"I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons. And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons," he said.
In January 1994, Mr Clinton signed a tripartite agreement with the then presidents of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, and Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, to eliminate the arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons which remained on Ukrainian soil after the fall of the Soviet Union. The United States was also party to a related agreement later in the same year, which included Russian commitments to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity.
These commitments were broken in 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and further shattered when it began a wider war against Ukraine last year.
"I knew that President Putin did not support the agreement President Yeltsin made never to interfere with Ukraine's territorial boundaries - an agreement he made because he wanted Ukraine to give up their nuclear weapons.
"They were afraid to give them up because they thought that's the only thing that protected them from an expansionist Russia," Mr Clinton said.
"When it became convenient to him, President Putin broke it and first took Crimea. And I feel terrible about it because Ukraine is a very important country."
Mr Clinton said western support for Ukraine should remain steadfast.
"I think what Mr. Putin did was very wrong, and I believe Europe and the United States should continue to support Ukraine. There may come a time when the Ukrainian government believes that they can think of a peace agreement they could live with, but I don't think the rest of us should cut and run on them."
Mr Clinton's admission of regret was "very frank," University of Galway law lecturer, Larry Donnelly, told Prime Time.
"It is understandable in light of everything that has happened why he feels that regret that he does," Mr Donnelly said. "At the same time, it is understandable why he did what he did, trying to denuclearise the world, trying to improve relations and engage constructively with Russia...Of course it is also understandable why the Ukrainian people are angry about that."
Mr Donnelly also said it was surprising that the US role in denuclearising Ukraine "hasn’t featured more prominently in the debate in the United States about whether supporting Ukraine is the right thing, or not, to do.
"A lot of Americans say, 'this is a problem very far away from us, why should we be involved,’ but I think a lot of them could be moved at a moral level if they saw the United States’ role in what happened in 1994" when Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons.
