NATO in exchange for territories - Budapest Memorandum 2?

What does this mean in practice?

Ukraine concludes a temporary peace agreement with Russia on a ceasefire.

At the same time, Ukraine receives an invitation to join NATO and signs the Accession Protocol, which de facto recognizes Ukraine within the territories it currently controls.

After that, the process of ratification of Ukraine's accession by all NATO countries begins.

What is Putin's natural reaction?

“It is quite obvious that while the ratification process is underway - and it can take years - they will find any excuse to locally violate the ceasefire agreement and win back at least a piece of territory from Ukraine, which, according to the already signed accession protocol, is subject to 'NATO guarantees'”

This brings the West face-to-face with the very choice it has been avoiding all along: as soon as Ukraine completes the process of joining NATO, NATO gets a formal ticket to war with Russia.

The first question is: does anyone believe that under such conditions the ratification of Ukraine's accession protocol to NATO will ever be completed?

The second question is: does anyone believe that Western politicians and analysts did not foresee this scenario?

The third and final question is: what is the difference between the current proposal of “NATO membership in exchange for territories” and the Budapest Memorandum?

Source

About the author. Oleksiy Panych, philosopher, member of the Ukrainian Center of PEN International, blogger.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.