Nuclear Weapons and Ukraine American Ukrainian and Russian Trilateral Cooperation 1991-96 An International Conference in the series “Nunn-Lugar Revisited” Organized by the National Security Archive George Washington University with the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Borgo Fileta La Bagnaia Siena Italy September 20-22 2019 Agenda and Participants Saturday September 21 2019 Session I 1991-92 The situation in 1991 and 1992 dissolution of USSR nuclear agreements of CIS command and control of nuclear weapons early nuclear discourse and bargaining beginning of Nunn-Lugar George H W Bush attitudes and policies towards Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk summit with Bush May 1992 Secretary of State James Baker and the Lisbon Protocol withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons between September 1991 and May 1992 Session II 1993 The transition from Bush to Clinton Clinton administration assessment of Nunn-Lugar Defense Department takes the lead on Nunn-Lugar first Strobe Talbott visits to Ukraine and Russia the Bill-Boris relationship the development of a broader agenda for U S -Ukraine and a focus on nuclear weapons Session III 1993 The Russia-Ukraine relationship the Dubinin-Kostenko negotiations the Dubinin-Shmarov negotiations the beginning of the trilateral process August in London the Massandra summit in September and its aftermath the Christopher-Talbott visit to Kyiv in October trilateral discussions in NovemberDecember 1993 resolving Ukraine’s compensation security aid questions insisting on NPT ratification impact of the Zhirinovsky election December 93 Sunday September 22 2019 Session IV 1991-96 Ukrainian domestic politics role of the Verkhovna Rada relationship of Rada with Kravchuk and with Kuchma nuclear bargaining and nuclear discourse in Ukraine “ownership” and “temporary nuclear state” and other concepts the Rada resolution of November 1993 motivations in Kyiv and reactions in Washington and Moscow Session V 1991-96 Ukrainian military and the 43rd Army the Russian Rocket Forces view and relationship with Gen Mikhtyuk warhead custody and security arrangements military-to-military relations role of Ukrainian Defense Ministry in negotiations demobilization of the 43rd Army role of U S Defense Department Session VI 1994-96 The Trilateral agreement negotiated in Washington Kyiv and Moscow January 1994 Ukrainian elections 1994 Clinton-Kuchma and the broader US-Ukraine relationship implementation and funding through Nunn-Lugar final warhead withdrawal June 1 1996 final SS-24 silo destroyed October 2001 Session VII 1994-present The Budapest Memorandum December 1994 lessons mistakes successes turning points hindsight and foresight “Nuclear Weapons and Ukraine” Conference Participants From the United States James F Collins served as deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires at the U S Embassy in Moscow from 1990 to 1993 the years of Soviet dissolution and Russian and Ukrainian independence In 1993 he succeeded Strobe Talbott as U S ambassador to the newly independent states and joined the ongoing trilateral negotiations with Ukraine Subsequently he became U S ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1997 to 2001 Laura S H Holgate helped organize the Nunn-Lugar initiative at the U S Department of Defense starting in 1993 was special coordinator for cooperative threat reduction at the Pentagon from 1995 to 1998 and head of the Department of Energy’s office of fissile materials disposition 1998-2001 Her subsequent career includes senior positions at the Nuclear Threat Initiative the Obama National Security Council and as U S ambassador to the UN and IAEA in Vienna Dr Susan J Koch served on the George H W Bush National Security Council staff in 1992 as director of defense policy and arms control at the time of the Kravchuk summit and subsequently in the Clinton administration became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for threat reduction involved in multiple Ukraine negotiations and the famous sunflower-planting ceremony at Pervomaysk in 1996 among other highlights of her 25-year government career Dr William J Perry was the Clinton administration’s deputy secretary of defense in 1993 and took over as secretary of defense from 1994 through early 1997 With Ash Carter he developed the “preventive defense” concept that inspired the legislation by Senators Nunn and Lugar in 1991 then made Nunn-Lugar implementation a priority at the Pentagon and personally observed the demobilization of ICBMs in Ukraine on multiple visits as described in his memoir My Journey to the Nuclear Brink 2015 Steven Pifer worked on the National Security Council staff from 1994 to 1997 as a special assistant and senior director for Russia Ukraine and Eurasia He was U S ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 through 2000 then deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs 2001-2004 and subsequently authored the Brookings Institution paper on “The Trilateral Process ” and the 2017 book on U S -Ukrainian relations The Eagle and the Trident Strobe Talbott served as the Clinton administration’s first ambassador to the newly independent states in 1993 then as Deputy Secretary of State through January 2001 He initiated the trilateral U S -Ukrainian-Russian process in August 1993 and participated in almost every high-level U S -Russia discussion in those years which are memorialized in his 2002 book The Russia Hand From Ukraine Nikolai Mikhailovich Filatov was commander of the 46th Rocket Division in Pervomaysk and from 1994 the last deputy commander of the 43rd Rocket Army in Ukraine retiring in 1997 with the rank of Major General After his retirement from the Army he worked as Deputy Commander of the National Academy of Defense and served in the Main Inspections Department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense He personally hosted Secretary Perry’s visits to Pervomaysk and is the author of a forthcoming history of the removal of nuclear weapons from Ukraine Yuri Ivanovich Kostenko was a founder of Rukh in 1989 and served as minister of environmental protection and nuclear safety from 1992 to 1998 and as a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 1990 on He led the Ukrainian delegation negotiating with Yuri Dubinin in the bilateral process in 1993 and authored the book Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament A History forthcoming from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Ukrainian edition published 2015 Ihor Vasilievich Pustovoy served as commander of the 31st Rocket Army from 1988 to 1993 in Orenburg Russia then became head of the main department for science and deputy head of armaments for the Armed Forces of Ukraine He participated in the negotiations over nuclear withdrawals on behalf of the Ukraine Ministry of Defense and ultimately retired with the rank of Lieutenant General Borys Tarasyuk was deputy foreign minister of Ukraine 1992-1995 during the trilateral process and multiple other negotiations with the U S and with Russia and subsequently served twice as Ukraine’s foreign minister 1998-2000 and 20052007 A veteran of Ukraine’s mission to the UN 1981-1986 and several ambassadorships he also has had a lengthy career in the Verkohvna Rada from 2002 to 2019 From the Russian Federation Victor Ivanovich Esin rose to the rank of Colonel General in his 40-year career in the Soviet and Russian Defense Ministries From 1994-1996 he was Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces during the key years of demobilization of the 43rd Rocket Army in Ukraine Vladimir Petrovich Lukin served as the Russian Federation’s first ambassador to the U S from 1992-1994 then as head of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee and deputy chairman of the Duma Now a Senator in the Federation Council he also served as Human Rights Commissioner for over a decade Evgeny Petrovich Maslin retired at the rank of Colonel General in 1997 after 40 years’ service in the Soviet and Russian militaries From 1992 to 1997 he headed the Russian Ministry of Defense’s 12th Main Directorate in charge of all nuclear munitions during the period in which nuclear warheads were withdrawn from Ukraine to Russia dealing directly with the 43rd Rocket Army commander and Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials Dr Sergey Mikhailovich Rogov served as director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for US and Canada Studies for more than two decades and personally engaged with Senators Nunn and Lugar in the development and implementation of their initiative He provided expert analysis and advice to multiple Russian diplomatic negotiations in the 1990s and beyond Scholars Tom Blanton is director since 1992 of the National Security Archive at George Washington University and the chair moderator of this conference Svetlana Savranskaya is director of Russia programs and the Nunn-Lugar Project at the National Security Archive Mariana Budjeryn is a postdoctoral fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming book Inheriting the Bomb William Potter is Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey David Hoffman is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Dead Hand and reported for the Washington Post from Washington and from Moscow in the 1990s Vladimir Olegovich Pechatnov is professor of European and American history and politics at MGIMO University in Moscow Malcolm Byrne is the deputy director and research director at the National Security Archive and editor of the Archive’s CEU Press Cold War Reader series Leopoldo Nuti is professor of the history of international relations at Universita Degli Studii Roma Tre and co-founder of the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project Christian Ostermann is director of the History and Public Policy Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D C