Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a 'military operation' in Ukraine on Thursday, claiming it's intended to protect civilians.?
In a televised address, Putin said?said the action comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine. He added that Russia doesn't have a goal to occupy Ukraine. He said the responsibility for bloodshed lies with the Ukrainian?regime, The Guardian reported.?
Within minutes of Putin¡¯s short televised address, at about 5am Ukrainian time, explosions were heard near major Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.?
Ukraine has tried going the diplomacy route and offered to discuss issues with Russia, but those requests have fallen on deaf ears as Putin remains defiant in his hardened approach.
What ties Ukraine's hands further is the fact the country doesn't have any nuclear weapons that it can use as a bargaining?chip. But it wasn't always the case, and the country might rue the time they gave up on nuclear arsenal.?
After the fall of Soviet Union in 1991, the newly formed independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third largest nuclear power in the world.?
As thousands of nuclear weapons had been left on Ukrainian soil, some called immediately for sending the weapons to Russia; others called for?keeping them?as insurance against future aggression from other countries.?
Either way, the country found itself in command of thousands of nuclear weapons¡ªbut without operational control over them. The ability to detonate and use the weapons was still with Russia.
Ukraine considered arguing for gaining?operational control?of some of its stockpile but ultimately gave them up in 1994,?in exchange for the U.S., U.K. and Russia guaranteeing the country¡¯s security.?The agreement is known as the Budapest Memorandum.?
It is believed?that Ukraine didn¡¯t have an independent arsenal, but agreed to remove what were former Soviet weapons on its territory.? ?
The agreement also vowed that, if aggression took place, the signatories would seek immediate action from the United Nations Security Council to aid Ukraine.??
Kyiv has failed to get what it wanted ¡ª the kind of legally binding guarantees that would protect it from invasions like the one taking place.?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, has bitterly criticised the West for what he says is failing to live up to its promises.??
¡°Ukraine has received security guarantees for abandoning the world¡¯s third nuclear capability,¡± he said in a speech earlier this month at the Munich Security Conference.?¡°We don¡¯t have that weapon. We also have no security.¡±
After Russian troops invaded Crimea in early 2014 and stepped up a proxy war in eastern Ukraine, Putin?dismissed the Budapest accord?as null and void.
In July 2014, an ultra-nationalist?parliamentary bloc introduced a bill for arsenal reacquisition. Later that year, a poll showed that public approval stood at nearly 50 percent for nuclear rearmament.
Last year, Ukraine¡¯s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk,?said Kyiv?might look to nuclear arms if it cannot become a member of NATO. ¡°How else can we guarantee our defense?¡± Melnyk asked.?
However as things stand, Ukraine might be regretting the move to give up all its nuclear arsenal.?