Why Ukraine does not return the lands: postwar border treaties superseded the pact (Dribnytsya, 10.12.2021)
A fragment of a video debate by Vitaliy Dribnytsya (10.12.2021) responding to the reproach “if you condemned the pact, then return the lands.” Dribnytsya answers on legal grounds: the territorial outcome of the 1939 pact was long ago superseded by later, already legitimate border treaties — Soviet-Polish (the PKWN’s 1944 consent, the 1945 treaty), Soviet-Romanian (the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty), and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act on the inviolability of borders. The mirror example is the Kurils and southern Sakhalin under the 1951 San Francisco Treaty, which does not name the beneficiary of the territories.
Key moments
- 00:49 Postwar border treaties superseded the 1939 pact
- 00:53 The 1944 treaty with the new Polish government on the recognition of borders
- 01:05 The 1947 treaty with the Romanian government on the recognition of borders
- 01:12 The 1975 Helsinki Final Act on the inviolability of borders
- 02:43 The mirror: the Kurils and southern Sakhalin in the San Francisco Treaty
- 03:22 Japan demands at the state level, Poland and Romania do not