The long history of Russia’s broken promises to Ukraine : Consider This from NPR

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads “Remember Budapest Memorandum 1994” during a protest outside the embassy of the United States of America in Warsaw, Poland earlier this month.

NurPhoto/Getty

hide caption

toggle caption

NurPhoto/Getty

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads “Remember Budapest Memorandum 1994” during a protest outside the embassy of the United States of America in Warsaw, Poland earlier this month.

NurPhoto/Getty

Representatives from Russia and Ukraine will be in meetings to try to hammer out details of a ceasefire on Monday. But peace is still a long way off.

For starters it’s only a partial ceasefire—no strikes on energy infrastructure. It’s only for 30 days. And the Ukrainians and Russians aren’t even meeting with each other. The U.S. will be a go-between.

One of the biggest things working against a new agreement, is what happened after Ukraine’s last agreement with Russia. And the ones before that.

Ukraine says it won’t trust a promise from Russia. It needs security guarantees. To understand why, you’ve got to go back to the birth of independent Ukraine.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

This episode was produced by Connor Donevan.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.