re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Absurd how glib you are about Ukraine surrendering the 3rd largest nuclear stockpile in the world. Are you suggesting that it was no big deal what Ukraine did?

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Glib? Surely not.

Only providing some additional context because it's often presented that Ukraine gave up its nuclear stockpile which leads to the presumption that the arsenal was in a ready and usable state. The backstory (as referenced in the cited article) is much more complicated. There was the long standing U.S. position of non-proliferation which applied to Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. For the inheritors of the stockpile, there was also the lack of nuclear infrastructure and impending financial difficulties to be incurred when dealing with nuclear weapons approaching the end of their service life.

I personally am of the opinion that Ukraine should have bartered for more. The U.S. paid 17 billion for the HEU (highly enriched uranium) and was a signatory to a murky Budapest Memorandum.

Extrapolating a bit further... The U.S. spent untold billions trying to dissuade North Korea and Iran from proliferating. The current military aid that we are providing to Ukraine is a pittance in comparison.

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Stop hijacking the thread rehashing this nonsense.

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I simply injected factual nuances into the conversation. That offends your sensibilities?