During a recent appearance on Ireland’s well-liked current affairs TV program, RTÉ Prime Time, former president Bill Clinton discussed his views on the ongoing situation in Ukraine. The 42nd President was forthright, even acknowledging that he felt some personal guilt about the invasion. His observations illuminate a situation that has long-term repercussions for world peace and security.
During a recent appearance on Ireland’s well-liked current affairs TV program, RTÉ Prime Time, former president Bill Clinton discussed his views on the ongoing situation in Ukraine. The 42nd President was forthright, even acknowledging that he felt some personal guilt about the invasion. His observations illuminate a situation that has long-term repercussions for world peace and security.
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“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,” Clinton said.
Clinton asserted that Ukraine’s resistance to giving up its nuclear weapons was a result of their conviction that they were the only thing standing between them and an attack by a “expansionist” Russia.
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With Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, Clinton signed a historic agreement in 1994 to free Ukraine from the Soviet arsenal. While that was undoubtedly a historic accomplishment, another agreement that year, the Budapest Memorandum, significantly elevated the stakes. Ukraine made the decision to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for a guarantee from Russia that it would not violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Unfortunately, recent events have revealed that promise to be empty.
Predictably, that pledge was broken again in 2022 and in 2014.
Later in the show, Clinton added, “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.”
Since the commencement of the ongoing conflict in February 2022, Ukraine has received an enormous amount of financial assistance from the United States, amounting to approximately 50 billion dollars. This has taxpayers worried about where their hard-earned money is going.
