There were nukes in Ukraine. This is not the same as Ukraine having nukes. They couldn’t control, and worse, couldn’t maintain the nuclear weapons that the Soviet Union left behind.
Comment on Ukraine ‘will seek nuclear weapons’ if it cannot join Nato
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
If I recall correctly, the reason Ukraine got rid of their previous nukes was an agreement with Russia. Essentially remove your nukes or face annexation by Russia… And yet here we are, unsurprisingly to be honest.
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
couldn’t maintain the nuclear weapons that the Soviet Union left behind.
Not sure Russia has either. They certainly haven’t maintained the rest of the Societ military infrastructure that was left in Russia.
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
Right. Not something we knew 30 years ago, though.
RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
It was a bit different than you say but not too far off: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum
In a nutshell, among several more countries Russia and Ukraine signed this agreement, Ukraine and other countries pledged to get rid of sovjet nukes, in return Russia and other countries pledged to not excerpt force against the countries that signed, except for self defense. And well, we know now how that went.