# Putin's Victory Day speech

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putins-victory-day-speech/964225>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Tags:** ukraine-invasion\
**Created:** [May 10, 2022, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putins-victory-day-speech/964225 "2022-05-10T07:33:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![its\_the\_daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putins-victory-day-speech/964225/1 "2022-05-10T07:33:39Z")

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[Ukraine War: Putin’s Victory Day speech fact-checked - BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/61379405)

> President Putin has repeatedly said Ukraine plans to acquire nuclear weapons as a justification for Russia’s invasion, although there’s no evidence this is the case.
> 
> When it was part of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine did have nuclear weapons, but gave these up in the 1990s in return for security guarantees from the US, UK **and Russia.**  
> (my bold)

Can anybody point me to evidence of these Russian guarantees? What were they worth?

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**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putins-victory-day-speech/964225/2 "2022-05-10T07:37:30Z")

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Probably a reference to the [Budapest Memorandum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances). And yes, it proved utterly worthless for Ukraine.

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**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putins-victory-day-speech/964225/3 "2022-05-10T11:25:43Z")

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Facetious but not unapt - the Guardian’s cartoon this morning:

> **[Steve Bell on Putin’s Victory Day celebrations – cartoon](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2022/may/09/steve-bell-on-putins-victory-day-celebrations-cartoon)**
>
> Nuclear missiles were paraded through the Red Square as part of the pomp and ceremony, while Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine rages on

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**Author:** ![its\_the\_daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putins-victory-day-speech/964225/4 "2022-05-10T12:32:44Z")

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Thanks very much.

Quote:

> On 19 February 2022, Zelenskyy made a speech at the [Munich Security Conference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Security_Conference) in which he said “Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum [i.e. [United States]([United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States)) and [United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom)]. Three times without success. Today Ukraine will do it for the fourth time. … If they do not happen again or their results do not guarantee security for our country, Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt.”

I think that’s the end of the FQ phase.

Is it worth continuing in GD’s?