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Ukraine wasn't a "tiny breakway state" - it had some of the heaviest USSR industry, crop production, education facilities / educated populace, and most combat c
by throw1234651234 3y ago
Ukraine wasn't a "tiny breakway state" - it had some of the heaviest USSR industry, crop production, education facilities / educated populace, and most combat capable military units due to being on the border of Europe.
It has since sold off a lot of this due to corruption. However, just a couple of nukes could have avoided this whole fiasco. There are modern, deprecated (read: late 80s) launch facilities, even one of which could have prevented the war (possibly).
- ajross 3y ago> However, just a couple of nukes could have avoided this whole fiasco. Yes. Or it could have resulted in Ukraine using the same weapons to blackmail its neighbors in the same way Russia is doing now. The point to the decision was risk management. There were zero "good" options for what to do with the USSR nuclear arsenal. But leaving it all under the unitary control of a giant established military bureaucracy that had managed not to blow up the world for 50 years seemed "less bad" than just handing them out like candy to all the follow-on bootstrapped governments.