Moscow, March 19 (IANS): Moscow Wednesday accused Western countries of violating the Budapest Memorandum which guarantees Ukraine's territorial integrity.

"The question is, how the guarantees (envisaged in the memorandum) could be matched with the US and the European Union's (EU) threats to use sanctions against Ukrainian leadership during the riots in Kiev," Xinhua quoted the Russian foreign ministry as saying in a statement.

Russia said that those threats could be qualified as economic pressure on the sovereign state, while permanent presence of the Western envoys at Maidan, the Independence Square in Kiev, could be qualified as active encouragement for the state coup.

The ministry also pointed at US and EU's refusal during those events in Kiev to consider the legitimate president of Ukraine as a partner.

"All these are examples of how the US and the EU acted against Ukraine's political independence and sovereignty in breach of their obligations under the Budapest Memorandum," the ministry said.

The Budapest Memorandum, signed in December 1994, gave assurances on Ukraine's territorial integrity or political independence in exchange for Kiev's accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The memorandum was signed by Russia, the US and Britain.

Under the Memorandum Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons stockpile, the world's third largest at that time.