Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine City of Kiev The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation presents its complements to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow and has the honor to confirm receipt of a note from September 13 1993 which contained an offer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to start on nuclear weapons As is known the removal of tactical nuclear weapons from the territory of Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation was carried out in accordance with a range of international legal documents under which appear the signatures of the presidents of the Russian Federation and Ukraine The foundational document in this range is the “Agreement on joint measures in regard to nuclear weapons ” signed in Almaty on December 21 1991 by the presidents of the Republic of Belarus the Republic of Kazakhstan the Russian Federation and Ukraine Section 6 of the specified Agreement decrees “Participating states of this Agreement in accordance with the international Treaty will cooperate in eliminating nuclear weapons By July 1 1992 the Republic of Belarus the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine will provide for the removal of tactical nuclear weapons to a central pre-factory base for their dismantlement under joint control In elaboration of the decision the Russian Federation and Ukraine in April 1992 reached a bilateral “Agreement on the order of transfer for nuclear weapons from the territory of Ukraine to a central pre-factory base in the Russian Federation for the purpose of their dismantlement and elimination ” This agreement was implemented The Russian Federation proceeds from the premise that neither in the aforementioned Almaty Agreement nor in the bilateral Agreement on the removal of nuclear weapons is there any word about any kind of compensation for the removal of tactical nuclear weapons The fact that Ukraine negotiated with the Russian Federation for the aforementioned Agreement without any articulation of the issue of ‘compensation’ for the removal of tactical From the Nunn-Lugar collection of the National Security Archive the 22nd of September of this year in Kiev discussions on compensation for Ukraine for tactical nuclear weapons and even more so the fact itself that the conclusion of the removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Ukraine to Russia taken in its entirety merely highlights the legal validity of the resolution of this issue in full compliance with the international obligations of the Russian Federation and Ukraine and once more confirms the indissoluble unity of international law and practice on this issue Therefore in the view of the Russian Federation there are no legal grounds for the demands from Ukraine regarding ‘compensation’ for the removal of tactical nuclear weapons to The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation takes the opportunity to renew assurances of its highest consideration to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow Moscow September 22 1993 Translated by Sarah Dunn for the National Security Archive Source Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Fond 1 delo 7063 From the Nunn-Lugar collection of the National Security Archive Russia