MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's reference to the memorandum on security guarantees in the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in connection with the gas dispute are ungrounded, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

"We believe that Ukraine's references to the Budapest memorandum have no grounds whatsoever," the ministry statement said.

Under the memorandum, signed in Budapest in 1994, the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain guarantee security to Ukraine in exchange for the country's disposal of nuclear weapons stationed there since the Soviet era.