Why Ukraine gave up its nukes so eagerly
I often hear in the context of the legendary Budapest Memorandum that "Ukrainians are stupid because they gave up their nuclear weapons for nothing."
But some clarification is needed here. Ukrainians were not stupid at that time, and all opinion polls showed that Ukrainians were against giving up nuclear weapons. Of course, I am well aware of the development level of Ukrainian society in the early 1990s. Still, even those recently free citizens of the USSR understood a simple truth: you are clearly more protected with weapons than without. This is on the instinctual level of self-survival.
That's why no one asked Ukrainians then. The most crucial issue in the history of modern Ukraine was not put to a referendum. Moreover, the memorandum itself, based on the essence of the document, was not ratified by parliament. Yes, Ukraine has joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but no one has ratified the "most important piece of paper."
They did so primarily through financial means
So how did it happen that such important decisions were signed without any formal consent of the "supreme power holder, the people?"
The politicians in power at the time were very fond of telling us how terribly they were twisted, blackmailed, and so on. But this is disingenuous. Of course, Western countries put pressure on Ukraine, and it was they (not Russia) who forced us to give up our weapons. But they did so primarily through financial means – giving or not giving money to the Ukrainian authorities. This went on for a very long time. That is, if you look at it, the West simply deprived Ukraine of nuclear weapons through corruption schemes while simultaneously corrupting the Ukrainian "political elite." Of course, these "communists and Komsomol members" were some pretty bad actors, but if they were being corrupted so openly, why should they refuse?
I am far from thinking that this is how our legendary corruption was born, but it is still a bit funny when the heirs of those who disarmed Ukraine thanks to this corruption are talking about it now.
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