How Many Nuclear Weapons Does The Ukraine Have? When Did Ukraine Give Up Their Nuclear Weapons?

Ukraine has acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Ukraine inherited “as many as 3,000” nuclear weapons when it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, making its nuclear arsenal the third-largest in the world.

Thousands of nuclear arms had been left on Ukrainian soil by Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the years that followed, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize.

In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum.

It is hard to estimate whether Ukrainians foresaw the impact.

It is clear that Ukrainians knew they weren’t getting the exactly legally binding, really robust security guarantees they sought.

But they were told at the time that the United States and Western powers — so certainly at least the United States and Great Britain — take their political commitments really seriously.

This is a document signed at the highest level by the heads of state. So the implication was Ukraine would not be left to stand alone and face a threat should it come under one.

However, Russia had just glibly violated it.

Some Ukrainians regret that Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, but Mariana Budjeryn says the country made the right decision at the time.

It would have cost Ukraine quite a bit, both economically and in terms of international political repercussions, to hold on to these arms. So it would not have been an easy decision.