OTD in 1994 The Budapest Memorandum was signed. It remains the most spectacular waste of paper, ink, and geopolitical optimism in the history of humankind.
The deal was simple (and disastrous): Ukraine disarms. Russia, the UK, and the USA promised, in return, to guarantee our security and territorial integrity.
Years later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Bombing us with the same aircrafts we gave them during disarmament and killing our people with the very missiles they acquired from us. A five-star betrayal. True villains. Top notch.
The other guarantors spent the first eight years of the war arguing passionately about whether the invasion was a "civil war" or not. When Russia escalated in 2022, they finally seemed to realize their stupidity and shifted to arguing about escalation management.
The only steady side of the Memorandum is the UK. They had the decency not to blame us for being invaded and didn't push us to surrender.
Moral of the story: you need nukes and can believe absolutely no one, especially not Russia.