[ssssvd]

Ukrainian nukes were about as Ukrainian as Texas-based US nukes are Texan — they were Soviet weapons targeting US cities, with launch authority and maintenance cycles controlled from Moscow.

After independence, Ukraine had physical possession of a huge nuclear arsenal but lacked the codes and infrastructure to operate or maintain it long-term. The only practical options were to dismantle them, bargain them away, or possibly sell off some nuclear material or technology to third parties — though they ultimately chose to denuclearize under the Budapest Memorandum in exchange for security assurances.

What could have truly deterred Russia was Ukraine’s enormous conventional military inherited from the USSR (actually, the size of Russia's), but it was steadily gutted over the decades through underfunding, corruption, and arms sales.

[palata]

> though they ultimately chose to denuclearize under the Budapest Memorandum in exchange for security assurances.

That the US and the UK (and obviously Russia) did not honour, did they?

[Aloisius]

It has been honored by the US and UK.

The only obligations it imposes, besides not attacking Ukraine, is to seek UN Security Council action should Ukraine be nuked. I don't know why people keep trotting it out like it's a comprehensive defense pact.

[_DeadFred_]

That isn't the American Secretary of States opinion:

https://bsky.app/profile/dittie.bsky.social/post/3lji5yzf5ns...

Nor is the US currently 'honoring it' clear from a direct reading of the langauge:

https://bsky.app/profile/igorsushko.bsky.social/post/3ljnqjm...

[ssssvd]

It had been honoured — or at least not directly violated — for 20 years. And in international affairs, 20 years is "forever."

Between 1918 and 1938, how many treaties were signed, broken, rewritten, and ignored by how many powers?

[_DeadFred_]

Man so many American's about to be relieved they can stop honoring their 30 year mortgagee.

[palata]

I'll keep that in mind next time I sign a contract: "I commit to honouring it until I don't".