Original article (in Serbian) was published on 28/09/2022
These days, claims are being shared on Twitter, suggesting that Ukraine does not exist as a state and that it never existed. The aim is to deny the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state and to justify the aggression which Putin is carrying out on its territory. The alleged statement of former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which cannot be found on the Internet, is used as evidence. The author of the tweet also mentions international agreements as an argument that Ukraine’s borders are not recognized, but these agreements show the exact opposite. By the way, this disinformation was already debunked here in March, but now it has “resurrected” again.
The claim that Ukraine does not exist as a state appeared back in 2014 during the Russian annexation of Crimea. At the end of February this year, with the beginning of Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, it started to be shared again on social networks, and Raskrinkavanje.me and AFP wrote about it. The post came to life again on September 23, when it was published by the “Vuk Ravnogorski” Twitter profile, and to date, it has collected more than 440 likes and has been retweeted more than a hundred times.
What is wrong here?
“On April 7, 2014, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a stunning statement, the distribution of which was banned in the Ukrainian media and on the Internet. (…) Ukraine has not registered its borders since December 25, 1991”.
Such a statement by Ban Ki-moon cannot be found on the Internet. In the statement available on the United Nations website from April 7, 2014, there is not even a word about the borders of Ukraine. Instead, it is stated that “the Secretary-General is seriously concerned about the increased instability in the east of Ukraine”. That period is known as the “Crimean crisis” and it came about due to the Russian annexation of Crimea – a peninsula in the east of Ukraine.
During that period, Ban Ki-moon called for a reduction of tensions, a diplomatic solution to the crisis, and respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. On March 27, 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution confirming the territorial integrity of Ukraine and calling on the members not to recognize the independent status of Crimea.
“The UN has not registered the borders of Ukraine as a sovereign state”.
The website of this organization states that “The United Nations is neither a state nor a government, and therefore has no authority to recognize either a state or a government. As an organization of independent states, the UN can accept a new state as a member or accept the credentials of a representative of a new government”.
Professor of the Department of International Law and International Relations at the University of Sofia, Mira Kaneva, explained to AFP that “there is no such thing as border registration”.
“Borders are recognized by signing a relevant contract that represents the will of the interested parties. Recognition comes into force after ratification, not with the registration of that treaty in the UN, where international treaties are deposited”, she explained to AFP.
Namely, Ukraine became an independent state again in the early nineties, at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. On August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) adopted the Declaration on the Independence of Ukraine, which declared the independence of Ukraine from the then USSR. That day is still celebrated in Ukraine as Independence Day. The declaration was confirmed in a referendum on December 1, 1991, and the Soviet Union formally dissolved on December 25, 1991.
Russia was one of the first to recognize the independence of Ukraine – this was announced by the then President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, soon after the Declaration was adopted.
“The Russian president has recognized the independence of Ukraine in accordance with the democratically expressed will of its people”, it was announced in the show Vesti at the time, writes the New York Times in its edition from December 3, 1991.
“So, according to the CIS agreement, the territory of Ukraine is an administrative district of the USSR”.
This statement is not true either. Namely, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was formed in December 1991 in Minsk and was founded by Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. It was created to facilitate the dissolution of the Soviet Union and enable further cooperation for the countries that were part of it.
“The contracting parties recognize and respect the territorial integrity of the others and the inviolability of the existing borders within the Community”, it is written in Article 5 of the Treaty on the establishment of this Community.
Then, in 1993, the Charter of the Commonwealth of Independent States was signed, and it stated that the member states would build relations following the principles of “respect for the sovereignty of the member states, the right of people to self-determination (…) the inviolability of state borders, recognition of existing borders, rejection of illegal territorial annexation”.
In these documents, therefore, it is clearly stated that we are talking about independent states.
“Ukraine must complete the demarcation of borders with neighboring countries and obtain the consent of neighboring countries, including Russia, on their common border”.
Although in several documents and agreements signed by Russia and Ukraine over the years, it was stated that Russia recognizes the territorial integrity of Ukraine, problems between them regarding borders still exist. Demarcations are such a problem – marking borders on the ground.
The agreement on the Russian-Ukrainian state border was signed in Kyiv on January 28, 2003, by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, and it defines the border between these two countries. The demarcation, however, was not realised at the time when the agreement was signed.
The Presidents of Ukraine and Russia signed the Agreement on Border Demarcation on May 17, 2010. In August of that year, Moscow confirmed that it was ready to demarcate the border with Ukraine, according to Radio Free Europe. In the subsequent period, little progress was made, so in mid-2014, the Ukrainian National Security Council ordered the government to unilaterally demarcate the Russian-Ukrainian border. In October of the same year, the Russian government announced that the border would be built in three years.
However, demarcation on the ground is not a necessary condition for the state to be recognized as independent. Radio Free Europe explains that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was “hesitating to demarcate its borders with several former Soviet neighbors, such as the Baltic countries, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and countries in the Caucasus”. A similar problem with border demarcation exists between former Soviet republics, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“According to the Budapest Memorandum and other agreements, Ukraine has no borders”.
This is not true either. Namely, the Memorandum on Security Guarantees in connection with the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, better known as the Budapest Memorandum, was signed on December 5, 1994, between Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA. The memorandum consists of only six points. With it, Ukraine renounces its nuclear weapons in favour of Russia, which has guaranteed respect for its independence and territorial integrity.
“The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine (…) and respect its independence and sovereignty as well as the existing borders”, the aforementioned agreement states.