Ms. Tymoshenko declared that she would take back Crimea if elected President of Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko has promised to take back Crimea if she wins. She said this at a meeting with voters, according to the Batkivshchyna Party website.
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| Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko. Photo: Sputnik |
“We need not only to return the occupied territories of Crimea and Donbass, but to make Russia responsible as an occupying power, to compensate for the damage our country has suffered,” the report said.
Tymoshenko also called it a mistake that Ukraine did not join NATO at the same time as the adoption of the Budapest Memorandum. In her opinion, membership in the North Atlantic Alliance is the only guarantee of Ukraine's security.
The Budapest Memorandum was signed on February 5, 1994 by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The 1994 Budapest Memorandum provided for the transfer of remaining nuclear warheads in Ukraine to Russia in exchange for military assistance in the event of an attack and guarantees of territorial integrity. In addition, Kiev was required to abandon all plans to develop nuclear weapons and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.