Russia has been attacking Ukraine for weeks. On Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that he order a military operation in Ukraine. In this situation, an old issue has come up again

Ukraine was a nuclear-capable region during the former Soviet Union. Even Ukraine, a newly independent country that broke away from the Soviet Union almost three decades ago, became the world’s third-largest nuclear power in a short period of time. Many are wondering where Ukraine is now and why it has not been used.

Although thousands of nuclear weapons remained on Ukrainian soil after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the country voluntarily undertook full nuclear disarmament in the years that followed.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a non-profit policy research and advocacy organization, details this in their analysis report.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Russia have vowed to ensure Ukraine’s security. Based on this assurance, the countries signed the Disarmament Treaty in 1994 called the Budapest Memorial.

Prior to the agreement, Ukraine had 16 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers and 1,240 warheads. It was possible to launch 6 nuclear weapons with 130 SS-19S launchers. In addition, Ukraine had the capability to launch 10 nuclear missiles with the remaining 48 SS-24S launchers.

Ukraine had 14 SS-24 missiles, but no warheads attached to them. They also had dozens of bombers capable of using strategic nuclear weapons, which were equipped with about 600 air-to-air missiles and gravity bombs.

At the same time, Ukraine’s arsenal was equipped with a total of 5,000 strategic and tactical (long and short range) nuclear weapons with 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons.

Ukraine’s then-leader Leonid Kravchuk said he was “not worried” about sending nuclear weapons to Russia for destruction. However, he later reversed his decision and suspended disarmament from March 12, 1992.

However, in June 1998, Ukraine announced that all warheads had been removed from the country.

Ukraine has handed over to Russia 11 strategic bombers and 600 surface-to-air missiles. Ukraine handed over the weapons to Russia for arrears of fuel gas imported from Russia. However, in 1998, all types of nuclear capabilities were removed from these aircraft and missiles.

Ukraine agreed in 1998 to destroy the rest of the missiles, the silo and launch sites (from which the missiles are fired). The country received a 48 million grant under the Nun Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Project. By 2001, all ICBMs had been removed.

In 2002, Ukraine signed the Hague Code of Conduct to prevent the spread of ballistic missiles.

In fact, since then, Ukraine’s nuclear capabilities have only been used for civilian purposes.

At present, Ukraine ranks second only to Russia in terms of military size in Eastern Europe. The number of members of their military is about two and a half lakhs, of which 2 lakh 15 thousand are regular members. In an announcement on February 3, President Zelensky announced plans to increase the number of troops by another 100,000 by 2025. Russia’s military is the fifth largest in the world.

Russia’s armed forces are made up of 1 million regular members and 2 million additional troops.

Many would have thought that Ukraine would have been in a better position in the ongoing crisis, even if the Soviet-era nuclear capability had been scattered.