Ukraine speaker wants higher status for Budapest Memorandum

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The chairman of Ukraine's parliament called on Wednesday for raising the status of the Budapest Memorandum, a 1994 pact signed by the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, and China and promising Ukraine security in exchange for having nuclear weapons withdrawn from its territory.

"I believe that this document should acquire the status of a political and legal document that would be signed at official level and ratified by the parliaments of [signatory] countries so that those guarantees are fulfilled," Volodymyr Lytvyn told reporters.

Doing this would eliminate the issue of Ukraine's proposed entry to NATO, "a problem that splits the Ukrainian people," Lytvyn said.

He said Ukraine is meeting all its commitments under the memorandum, one of which is a promise to close the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, but that there have been encroachments on the country's territorial integrity since the document was signed.

The Budapest Memorandum is part of the global system of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and a key element in a strategic compromise between Ukraine and nuclear powers.