[yywwbbn]

Ukraine wasn’t real a nuclear power though. They some of Soviet arsenal and some facilities required to maintain but it would have required significant investment to make it actually usable longterm. That was totally unfeasible during the economic collapse of the early 90s

[missedthecue]

To add, the keys, targeting coordinates, orders, and control of the weapons was with the Russians in the Kremlin. Kazakhstan and Turkey also housed nuclear weapons. No one argues they were a nuclear power stripped of their defense.

[oneshtein]

Missiles were built by Ukraine.

[missedthecue]

Rocket engines, which were dual use with peacetime space exploration, I might add. They did not build warheads.

[oneshtein]

Warhead were built in closed cities, but research was done in institutes, mostly by Jews and Ukrainians. Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology was known as "Laboratory №1" for nuclear physics. Many nuclear physicists were trained there.