Ukraine’s nuclear weapons

My primary focus at the moment is writing books, currently wrapping up two and well into the next. A chapter in the new book on the Russo-Ukrainian War is called Defense Budgets and International Aid. It starts as follows:

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          The United States and other members of NATO started providing military and financial aid in small amounts to Ukraine from the moment in declared its independence. Private aid agencies also did, including George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Ukraine actually declared its independence in August 1991, but the government of the Soviet Union was still officially ruling over all fifteen nations in the Soviet Union. That Soviet government collapsed on 25-26 December 1991, ending the almost 70 year existence of the Soviet Union. Ukraine was clearly a free and independent county at that point.

            Ukraine had considerable armed forces at that time, inheriting its share of the large Soviet Army and even inheriting a nuclear force of 176 ICBMs and 33 heavy bombers with a total of 1,734 nuclear warheads. It was the third largest nuclear power in the world. The break-up of the Soviet Union had left behind four nuclear armed states: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. It became the policy of the west disarm these three new nuclear armed states (but not Russia) and it was in the interest of Russian to also do so. As a result, in 1994 Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons and on 5 December 1994 Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. It was also signed by the two major nuclear powers, the United States and Russia and also the nuclear power United Kingdom. The other two nuclear powers, China and France. provided weaker individual assurances in separate documents. The end result was that between 1993 and 1996, the three former Soviet states gave up their nuclear weapons, mostly passing them back over to Russia.

            The signatories to the Budapest Memorandum also agreed that (to quote directly from the treaty, the bolding is ours):

1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.
2. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Northern Ireland, and the United Sates of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
3. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the Principles of the CSCE Final Act, to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.

There were three other related points 4) addressing enforcement through the security council, 5) a commitment not to use of nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear-weapon state, and 6) that the signatories will consult if a situation arises. [1] The memorandum was signed by Leonid D. Kuchman (Ukraine), Boris N. Yeltsin (Russia), John Major (UK) and William J. Clinton (U.S.). Needless to say, from 2014-2024, Russia has not adhered to these first three points.

[1] The text of memorandum is here: volume-3007-I-52241.pdf (un.org)