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In reply to the discussion: 30 yrs ago today: Ukraine disarmed itself voluntarily in exchange for security assurances from US, Britain and Russia [View all]Emrys
(8,125 posts)Ukraine couldn't have launched them conventionally even if it wanted to and all other considerations being equal.
I guess if desperate enough, Ukraine could have dismantled the missiles and made more or less dirty bombs, but it faced more immediate problems, and at that point the nukes were more of a liability than anything else, for instance simply to store them securely.
One major fear at the time was proliferation, seen as much more of a credible and immediate threat than any war involving Russia.
Ukraine proposing or threatening to "entertain bids" from all-comers for the nukes as you suggest would have rendered it a pariah state from early in its newly independent existence, and might even have provoked military intervention to head off the threat.
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