Conditions of the process of the nuclear disarmament of Ukraine

Abstract

The Russian aggression against Ukraine has provoked a debate on the premises of Ukrainian security policy conducted during the first years of independence. Numerous voices, some rather influential, suggest that the biggest mistake made by Ukraine, at that time, was giving up the nuclear weapons arsenal inherited from the USSR, and signing the NPT treaty as a non-nuclear state. The article recounts the circumstances in which Ukraine came to possess nuclear weapons, as well as the context of its disarmament. The author argues that, in the geopolitical conditions of that time, for Ukraine to maintain its nuclear status was unrealistic. Sticking to this position could have led to the full isolation of Ukraine in  the  international arena, and even intervention of  superpowers. The  critical assessment of  conditions, that Ukraine managed to  negotiate in  exchange for joining NPT, remains a separate issue.