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AFAIK, Ukraine never had nuclear weapons as a practical matter. They were always under the control of the Russian military. Edit: More specifically, under the
by rootusrootus 5y ago
AFAIK, Ukraine never had nuclear weapons as a practical matter. They were always under the control of the Russian military.
Edit: More specifically, under the control of the Kremlin. Assuming they have properly implemented nuclear codes that are non-trivial to circumvent. Given the US's track record on that, I'd be nervous.
- rhino369 5y agoI believe they had physical control but no launch codes.
- ceejayoz 5y agoThere wasn't really any clear legal status to them; the unit of the USSR military that was responsible for them wound up in the Ukranian armed forces after the split, as did quite a bit of other material. Thus, the agreement. They could have, at the very least, used them as raw disasembled nuclear material for their own program, if they had wanted. As the recording industry discovered, once your stuff is in someone else's physical posession, it's hard to stop them from figuring out how it works.
- sudosysgen 5y agoThe issue is by that time they'd have been overrun by both the Russians and the US.