The power of nuclear power
#249
My Dear Friend of Democracy,
30 years ago, Ukraine agreed to hand over to Russia all of the more than 1,000 nuclear warheads that were still on its territory from the Soviet era.
What if Ukraine had never agreed? What if they had retained the threat potential?
Would Russia have attacked Ukraine in 2022? Would Ukraine have been able to develop into a democracy at all (since nuclear weapons help the powerful to stay in power)?
All speculation.
What is not speculation:
The members of the so-called Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, signed on 5 December 1994, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and France, have committed themselves by their signatures not only to respect Ukraine's 1991 borders but also to support the country in ensuring that all countries respect these borders.
In this sense, the international community has failed.
It has contributed to making the largest country in Eastern Europe the only nuclear power in the region and has thus promoted the emergence of dictatorship in Russia. Cause this is for sure: Putin would only be half as powerful without nuclear weapons.
✊ We do not know whether a different policy after the end of the Soviet Union would have led to a better present, but what is clear is that the pressure on Ukraine to hand over its nuclear weapons to Russia leads to today’s responsibility to do everything in our power to help Ukraine expel Putin's army from their territory so that the country can exist as a democracy within the 1991 borders.
See you in Ukraine,
Johannes
Unfortunately, sometimes the only language understood is force and power (e.g., nuclear power).