Posted: Dec 06, 2022 9:33 pm
Ukraine never had operational control over the nukes. They were Soviet weapons reliant upon command and control systems that the Russians inherited, and were disabled before being abandoned on Ukrainian territory..
Although it was theoretically possible that these could have been reverse engineered or replaced with new designs, that could have taken many years to come to fruition during which the country would have been a pariah state both to Russia and the West.
It was never a realistic option for the country to become a nuclear power and it feels erroneous to me to suggest that they ever were one. The same goes for Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Although it was theoretically possible that these could have been reverse engineered or replaced with new designs, that could have taken many years to come to fruition during which the country would have been a pariah state both to Russia and the West.
It was never a realistic option for the country to become a nuclear power and it feels erroneous to me to suggest that they ever were one. The same goes for Belarus and Kazakhstan.