On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union officially collapsed, the pole of the bipolar world collapsed, the world situation suddenly changed, and the "second son" Ukraine inherited a large number of heritage that outsiders coveted.
Ukraine inherited 2,700 nuclear warheads, more than 6,000 main battle tanks, a full T-72 production line, three aircraft carriers, and more than 300 warships, including the aircraft carrier Varyag, the predecessor of the Liaoning. More than 1500 aircraft of various types, 19 of the world's largest strategic bomber Tu-160, the total production of this aircraft is only 35, in addition to the world's largest transport aircraft An 225 ...
Inheriting a huge family property, Ukraine has suddenly become the world's third largest military power, and has also become a thorn in the common eye of the United States and Russia.
Ukraine has 176 launch vehicles, 170 nuclear bomb silos, 130 UR-100N ICBMs, 46 RT-23 Scalpel ICBMs, more than 1200 ICBMs nuclear warheads and 2500 tactical nuclear weapons.
Ukraine inherited a large number of unnetilable military assets, did not promote the Ukrainian economy, but became a burden, in 1992 Ukraine broke out hyperinflation, as high as 2150%, in 1993 to 10250%, by 1994, Ukraine GDP not only did not grow, but fell more than 50% compared with 1990 before the collapse of the Soviet Union, per capita wages were only 25% of Russia, 40% of the country's wealth was controlled by the top 100 rich.
Ukraine's economy continues to decline, a large number of military enterprises are bankrupt, workers are unemployed, and although the inherited weapons and equipment are advanced, except for a small amount of exports to earn foreign exchange, they can only be treated as broken copper and iron idle, quietly waiting for rust and scrapping.
How to deal with the 2,700 nuclear warheads in ukraine's hands has become the focus of attention of the United States and Russia.
Nuclear weapons need to spend a lot of money to maintain, the on the verge of bankruptcy ukraine naturally has no spare money, nuclear weapons are difficult to deal with after the expiration date, and the accident that broke out at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant made the Ukrainians very sensitive to nuclear weapons. Moreover, politically, Ukraine has no hegemonic capital, and nuclear weapons appear superfluous, which will instead attract economic sanctions from the United States and Russia. Ukraine is not a permanent member of the Un Security Council and has no legal basis for possessing nuclear weapons, and on the whole, Ukraine can only choose to give up nuclear weapons.
On 8 December 1991, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Republics of the Ussur Union signed the Belovezh Agreement, requiring states to eliminate nuclear weapons and to engage in major disarmament. On December 21, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine signed the Agreement on Joint Monitoring Measures over Nuclear Weapons, and Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan will transport all tactical nuclear weapons to Russia for centralized destruction by July 1992.
Since then, the countries have signed the Agreement on Russia as the Only Successor to the Soviet Union's Nuclear Status, confirming that only Russia can inherit Soviet nuclear weapons, and the rest of the countries must abandon nuclear weapons to prevent nuclear proliferation.
The United States treats Ukraine's nuclear weapons in the same way as Russia, which allocates $400 million a year from military spending to help Ukraine, Belarus, kazakhstan eliminate nuclear weapons and then join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state.
In January 1994, the United States, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to ship all nuclear weapons in their territory to Russia for destruction in the next seven years, in exchange for $175 million in compensation and $155 million in economic assistance, the United States purchased uranium in nuclear warheads for power generation.
In addition to financial compensation, Ukraine is also protected by the five permanent members.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, nato's eastward expansion, Russia's strength is not as good as before, Ukraine is also ready to defect to the United States, join NATO, and eventually lead to tragedy, triggering the Russian-Ukrainian war, some Ukrainians regret giving up nuclear weapons that year, otherwise Russia would never take risks.
Can nuclear weapons protect Ukraine's security?
Countries of unequal strength cannot intimidate people by possessing nuclear weapons.
In the early days of independence, Ukraine's economy was in decline, inflation was serious, and the people did not have a good life, and only by abandoning nuclear weapons could they exchange economic assistance from Europe, the United States, Europe, and Russia.
Even if there were nuclear weapons today, they would mean little to Ukraine and would not guarantee its absolute security.
Nuclear weapons have destructive forces, except for the two dropped by the United States in Japan, the international community is very cautious about the use of nuclear weapons, bombing civilian areas will be condemned by the international community, and whoever uses nuclear weapons will become the enemy of the world and will be tolerated by the whole world.
Even if Ukraine has hundreds of nuclear warheads, once it throws nuclear warheads at Russia, it will be violently retaliated against and face disaster, Russia's territory covers an area of 17 million square kilometers, at least it will not perish, and Ukraine will completely disappear from the map, a price that Ukraine cannot afford.
Russia and Ukraine are both Slavs, and they do not have a deep hatred, but their political views are different, so Russian soldiers in Ukraine showed great restraint and did not attack civilians, Russian tanks were anchored on the road without oil, Ukrainian farmers were dragged away with tractors, and Russian troops did not shoot.
The performance of the Russian army in Ukraine is a civilized teacher, and nuclear weapons will only be used recklessly when the country is destroyed, so even if Russia occupies the whole of Ukraine, most people would rather choose to live under Russian rule than die together.
Ukraine's special geographical location determines that if you want to protect yourself, you can't rely on nuclear weapons, on the contrary, it is more important to choose the side of the United States, you will be attacked by Russia, the United States will only hand over the knife to ukraine and Russia, and will never rush to the front line by itself and fight for Ukraine.
Of all the countries in the world that possess nuclear weapons, there is only one that is readily possible to use them — Israel.
Israel has the advantage of science and technology, can also import advanced weapons and equipment from the United States, maintain military superiority over Arab countries, continue to expand territory, squeeze Palestine, bomb Syria, and become a small hegemon in the Middle East.
Arab countries have long been hostile to Israel, as long as Israel loses its military superiority, and then loses the support of the United States, the Arab countries will surely jointly attack Israel again, so Israel has always maintained a high degree of vigilance, on the one hand, it has developed its own nuclear weapons, on the other hand, it has sent warplanes to blow up the nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria, just to maintain the nuclear monopoly, one day Israel loses its superiority in the conventional military field, nuclear weapons will become Israel's talisman.
Conventional warfare is the key to victory over the enemy, and nuclear weapons are the last piece of insurance, and no matter who it is, it will not be easily opened, otherwise it will also bury the future of its own people.