Discuss: Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. Now it's asking why
BBC ^ | 5 December 2024 | Paul Adams
Posted on 03/01/2025 3:22:25 PM PST by NoLibZone
Under heavy grey skies and a thin coating of snow, hulking grey and green Cold War relics recall Ukraine’s Soviet past.
Missiles, launchers and transporters stand as monuments to an era when Ukraine played a key role in the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons programme - its ultimate line of defence.
As a newly independent Ukraine emerged from under Moscow’s shadow in the early 1990s, Kyiv turned its back on nuclear weapons.
But nearly three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, and with no clear agreement among allies on how to guarantee Ukraine’s security when the war ends, many now feel that was a mistake.
Thirty years ago, on 5 December 1994, at a ceremony in Budapest, Ukraine joined Belarus and Kazakhstan in giving up their nuclear arsenals in return for security guarantees from the United States, the UK, France, China and Russia.
Strictly speaking, the missiles belonged to the Soviet Union, not to its newly independent former republics.
But a third of the USSR’s nuclear stockpile was located on Ukrainian soil, and handing over the weapons was regarded as a significant moment, worthy of international recognition.
“The pledges on security assurances that [we] have given these three nations…underscore our commitment to the independence, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of these states,” then US President Bill Clinton said in Budapest.
As a young graduate of a military academy in Kharkiv, Oleksandr Sushchenko arrived at Pervomais’k two years later, just as the process of decommissioning was getting under way.
He watched as the missiles were taken away and the silos blown up. Now he’s back at the base as one of the museum’s curators.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
TOPICS: News/Current Events; Ukraine
KEYWORDS: 1994; 199412; 19941205; billclinton; clinton; notthisstuffagain; nuclearweapons; pervomaysk; russia; stupidity; thisistiresome; ukraine; yesitwasstupid; zelensky
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Given how corrupt our government is it would not surprise me that security Guarantees were made.
1 posted on 03/01/2025 3:22:25 PM PST by NoLibZone
To: NoLibZone
So you wouldn’t start WWIII with them.
Next question.
2 posted on 03/01/2025 3:23:18 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
To: NoLibZone
That’s what you get for trusting Bill Clinton.
3 posted on 03/01/2025 3:23:52 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: NoLibZone
Discuss: The Soviet Union dissolved but NATO keeps expanding. Russia is asking why
4 posted on 03/01/2025 3:25:09 PM PST by janetjanet998 (Legacy media including youtube are the enemy of the people and must die)
To: NoLibZone
Thank God Almighty that the little weirdo doesn't have access to nukes.
5 posted on 03/01/2025 3:25:52 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and His mercy endureth forever. — Psalm 106)
To: NoLibZone
This guy would have loved to have had a bunch
6 posted on 03/01/2025 3:26:05 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement What shtthoof fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
To: NoLibZone
And thank goodness they did or what is happening now would have gone hot years ago and we’d all be paying the price. Or their corrupt government would have already sold them to some bad actors.
7 posted on 03/01/2025 3:26:10 PM PST by Whatever Works (The real power lies in who counts the votes and controls the teleprompter.)
Comment #8 Removed by Moderator
To: NoLibZone
Ukraine joined Belarus and Kazakhstan in giving up their nuclear arsenals in return for security guarantees from the United States, the UK, France, China and Russia.
"security guarantees from ... Russia" -- Right. And where is China and it's "security guarantees"?
And when the United States turns its back on Ukraine, it will be left to the UK and France? I'm sorry, what planet are we living on?
9 posted on 03/01/2025 3:28:06 PM PST by asinclair
To: NoLibZone
10 posted on 03/01/2025 3:28:37 PM PST by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than saving to WORK like the rest of !US:-))
To: NoLibZone
Thank God they don't have them.
Trump needs to rescind the permission that Biden gave with the long range missiles...that Z could fire them into the Russian interior. They were originally given with the "THOU SHALT NOT" fire into Russia proper.
11 posted on 03/01/2025 3:28:59 PM PST by Sacajaweau
To: dfwgator
Scammed by Democrats.
That is why they called him “Slick”.
12 posted on 03/01/2025 3:29:58 PM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
To: NoLibZone
The basic premise of this article is false.
1. Ukraine never had any nuclear weapons at the end of the Cold War. They had the physical possession of Soviet-era nuclear weapons that were going to end up in Russian hands under any conceivable scenario after the breakup of the Soviet Union. See items below for more detail.
2. Russia was seen as the successor of the Soviet Union from every diplomatic perspective -- almost unanimously across the world. Russia assumed the permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council formerly held by the Soviet Union. Russia was tasked with dismantling the Soviet nuclear arsenal under the terms of arms treaties previously in place. And Russia took on the task -- at tremendous expense -- of decommissioning obsolete Soviet-era nuclear arms and power plants. They were actually doing Ukraine a favor by dealing with that disaster.
3. There was no way in hell the western nuclear powers (the U.S., the U.K., and France) would ever tolerate another nuclear power in eastern Europe -- especially one as corrupt, dysfunctional, and backward as Ukraine. Those powers would have allowed Russia to retain full control over Ukraine for a thousand years before they'd ever let Ukraine retain a single nuclear weapon from the Soviet stockpile.
13 posted on 03/01/2025 3:30:02 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Well, maybe I'm a little rough around the edges; inside a little hollow.” -- Tom Petty, “Rebels”)
To: NoLibZone
To: NoLibZone
Because, you’ll shoot their eye out with them.
15 posted on 03/01/2025 3:30:14 PM PST by farmguy ( )
To: NoLibZone
P.S. — No “security guarantees” were made that were binding on anyone. A U.S. president cannot sign a stupid piece of paper and extend any guarantees that hold up even under our own law. The U.S. Senate never ratified any kind of treaty with Ukraine that would obligate this country to come to Ukraine’s defense.
16 posted on 03/01/2025 3:31:25 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Well, maybe I'm a little rough around the edges; inside a little hollow.” -- Tom Petty, “Rebels”)
To: Bob Wills is still the king
There is an important lesson here.
Never trust anybody.
You are on your own.
17 posted on 03/01/2025 3:31:40 PM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
To: Bob Wills is still the king
See Post #16. A U.S. president has no more power to unilaterally guarantee another country’s security than you do.
18 posted on 03/01/2025 3:32:36 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("Well, maybe I'm a little rough around the edges; inside a little hollow.” -- Tom Petty, “Rebels”)
To: NoLibZone
19 posted on 03/01/2025 3:32:57 PM PST by Aria (Voted for Trump 2016, 2020 & 10/22/2024 )
To: NoLibZone
Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons
Zelensky and his legion of Zeepers (and Democrats and USAID) have been pounding this point relentlessly in the past six months, but did they give up what they never owned to begin with?
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