INFORMATION FACTORS IN THE FORMATION OF ASYMMETRIC SOVEREIGNTY IN UKRAINIAN–RUSSIAN RELATIONS IN THE EARLY 1990S

Abstract

This article presents the results of an analytical study of the formation of Ukrainian-Russian relations between 1991 and 1994 through the prism of the concept of asymmetric sovereignty. Based on a comparative analysis of declassified transcripts of telephone conversations and negotiations between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation from the National Security Archive, the study reconstructs the mechanisms of coordinated external pressure on Ukraine. It is argued that during this period, Ukrainian state sovereignty was viewed by key geopolitical actors not as a self-sufficient politico-legal value, but as a variable within the system of global stability, contingent upon the resolution of the Soviet nuclear legacy. The study identifies a systemic gap between the official diplomatic discourse, which declared support for Ukraine's independence, and the actual political practice of «confidential communication» aimed at limiting Ukraine's agency in the security sphere. The role of informational factors in maintaining an asymmetric model of relations and shaping a negative international image of the nascent state is analyzed. It was found that the systemic representation of Ukraine by leading Western and Russian actors in the international media and political spheres as a «threat to the non-proliferation regime» and a source of potential destabilization served as a tool for legitimizing external political and economic pressure on the Ukrainian leadership. The article details the utilization of the informational construct of «illegitimate possession» of nuclear weapons by the Russian Federation to promote its own interests, particularly in the energy sector and the settlement of debt obligations through Ukrainian political concessions. The study highlights the ultimatumdriven nature of negotiations regarding Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in exchange for stable energy supplies. A critical analysis of the memoir narrative of Russian diplomacy is conducted, allowing for the deconstruction of propaganda clichés and myths aimed at legitimizing the restriction of Ukraine's political agency. It is demonstrated that the signing of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum was the logical conclusion of the formation of the asymmetric model of sovereignty, codifying the legal ambiguity of security commitments through the use of the term «assurances» instead of «guarantees» The research findings conclude that the structural imbalance in the distribution of security obligations established in the early 1990s created the preconditions for the subsequent revision of the post-WWII European security order. It is determined that the asymmetry of sovereignty was consolidated not only at the level of international legal acts but also through mechanisms of direct energy blackmail and informational dominance.