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The US would not retaliate militarily if Russia used nuclear weapons against Ukraine. That is not part of US nuclear doctrine. Ukraine is not a treaty ally.



But they promised to protect the Ukraine. With the UK and China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Securit...


No, they promised to respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty. You literally linked it.


There are 6 things on the list. This one is the closest to promising to defend Ukraine:

>Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".

I don't know exactly what "Seek immediate Security Council action" means. What if the US seeks it and doesn't find it? Is that in compliance with the memorandum?


They did. Guess what happened? Vetoed by Russia.


Such vetoes are invalid when the veto state is directly involved into the conflict.


While that is technically correct based on the UN Charter, it's meaningless in practice. None of the permanent Security Council members are willing to take direct action on this issue.


# 1 Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.

#2 Refrain from the threat or the use of force against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Both violated in the Krimean annexion 2014. Since Russia could easily violate this treaty, they could easily invade Ukraine now. And they got no weapons from signatories, only a few from the Baltics.

Treaties with these signatories are not worth the paper, otherwise Ukraine would have kept the nukes, and would have somehow got the codes also eventually.




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