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It's a little more complicated than that. Ukraine did not have the ability to use any of those nuclear weapons because they never had the launch codes. They wer

It's a little more complicated than that. Ukraine did not have the ability to use any of those nuclear weapons because they never had the launch codes. They were basically stationed in Ukraine but were still under Moscow's control. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link A rough analogy would be this, if the United States broke apart South Dakota would have hundreds of nuclear warheads but the South Dakotan Governor / State National Guard would not be able to use them because they never had the ability in the first place.

s1artibartfast 5y ago
And they lacked the knowledge and infrastructure to maintain or modify them. And Russia didn't want them to have them and knew their exact locations. And NATO and the rest of the world saw Ukraine as a violation of the non-proliferation treaty and didn't want them to have them.
- Sylamore 5y ago
  I suspect they had the knowledge, considering Ukraine was where one of their early nuclear research facilities were - they were able to reproduce early fission experiments and made a proposal to leverage the ability in bombs in 1940 but were dismissed by nuclear experts in Moscow[0]. And it was Ukrainian's who worked to reverse engineer the V2 rockets post WWII and turned it into the rocket design that put Sputnik into space[1]. [0] - https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/ukraine-and-soviet-nuclear-history https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/ukraine-and-soviet-... [1] - https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/07/26/how-ukraine-wants-to-make-its-space-industry-great-again/ https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/07/26/how-ukraine-wants-to-...
KptMarchewa 5y ago
If only they tried 00000000...
mcguire 5y ago
In 25 years? Ukraine is a country with a population of 44,000,000 not that much smaller than the UK or France; South Dakota has a population of 900,000. Would Russia have recovered them if Ukraine did not want to relinquish them? Maybe, but in the 1990s they were in very bad shape, and before 2004 (and between 2010 and 2014) Ukraine was under a pro-Russian government. The point here is that, at this point, if any country is under the illusion that it does not need nuclear weapons to maintain its independent existence, they probably deserve to be absorbed by their neighbors.

s1artibartfast 5y ago

And they lacked the knowledge and infrastructure to maintain or modify them. And Russia didn't want them to have them and knew their exact locations. And NATO and the rest of the world saw Ukraine as a violation of the non-proliferation treaty and didn't want them to have them.

Sylamore 5y ago
I suspect they had the knowledge, considering Ukraine was where one of their early nuclear research facilities were - they were able to reproduce early fission experiments and made a proposal to leverage the ability in bombs in 1940 but were dismissed by nuclear experts in Moscow[0]. And it was Ukrainian's who worked to reverse engineer the V2 rockets post WWII and turned it into the rocket design that put Sputnik into space[1]. [0] - https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/ukraine-and-soviet-nuclear-history https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/ukraine-and-soviet-... [1] - https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/07/26/how-ukraine-wants-to-make-its-space-industry-great-again/ https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/07/26/how-ukraine-wants-to-...

KptMarchewa 5y ago

If only they tried 00000000...

mcguire 5y ago

In 25 years? Ukraine is a country with a population of 44,000,000 not that much smaller than the UK or France; South Dakota has a population of 900,000. Would Russia have recovered them if Ukraine did not want to relinquish them? Maybe, but in the 1990s they were in very bad shape, and before 2004 (and between 2010 and 2014) Ukraine was under a pro-Russian government. The point here is that, at this point, if any country is under the illusion that it does not need nuclear weapons to maintain its independent existence, they probably deserve to be absorbed by their neighbors.