DISINFO: The West pushed and encouraged Kyiv to acquire nuclear weapons
SUMMARY
The West bears responsibility for what is happening, because it pushed Kyiv and encouraged it to acquire nuclear weapons, which created threats to Russian security, which Russia did not and will not allow.
RESPONSE
A claim presented without any evidence or base. In addition, the claim was not counterbalanced or critically challenged in the article.
Under the Budapest memorandum in 1994, Ukraine promised to remove all Soviet-era nuclear weapons from its territory, send them to disarmament facilities in Russia, and sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Ukraine kept these promises. In return, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States promised that none of them would ever threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. They specifically pledged they would refrain from making each other's territory the object of military occupation or engage in other uses of force in violation of international law.
These are all pledges that Russia has blatantly broken with the annexation of Crimea in 2014, starting the war in Donbas in 2014 and with the current full invasion of Ukraine.