Is Ukraine the place to forge nuclear Armageddon?
George | 16.06.2015 07:40 | Analysis | Anti-Nuclear
21 years have passed since the moment Ukraine together with the USA and Russia signed the trilateral declaration on refusal from possession of nuclear arsenal inherited after the USSR collapse and considered the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal in the world at that moment
Meanwhile, the scientific base, theoretical researches, relevant enterprises and organizations as well as scientists are still at the disposal of Kyiv still willing to employ them all to restore the status of a nuclear state, once it makes such a decision. Back into 2009, president Yushchenko amid worsening of relations with Moscow was set to bring to active service up to 20 tactical nuclear warheads. By no doubts, under the current extremely tense situation and armed hostilities in South-Eastern Ukraine going on for more than a year, the issue of reviving nuclear abilities is included into Kyiv’s current agenda.
Washington, Brussels and Berlin are well in the know about the steps of the Ukraine targeted at restoration of its nuclear arsenal. The letter by Peter Altmaier, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, to Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Commander of the NATO Armed Forces in Europe, confirms the fact.
The biggest challenge to Europe’s security and safety of the whole world at present is actually the inability of Kyiv, obsessed with the nuclear ambitions, to effectively control the situation in the country and ensure nuclear technologies aren’t taken out of Ukraine. Corruption at all levels of power is still widespread (since the time Yanukovich fled the country nothing has changed actually); the threat of technological disasters remains high due to insufficient funding; lack of order, chaos and theft are flourishing. The recent huge fire on the oil storage facility near Kyiv and Zaporozhye NPP accident last year visibly show the real state of things in Ukraine. And Chernobyl may look just a minor episode if compared to some hypothetical events that may occur in case nuclear warheads get into the hands of rival oligarchy clans in Ukraine.
According to the letter by Altmaier, the senior officials of the EU and NATO are fully aware of the threat of nuclear weapons emerging in possession of Kyiv. Still they are ready to pacify themselves with it to get some additional ‘power leverage’ in the region. In fact, Altmaier and Breedlove representing the EU and NATO structures don’t care a bit about the safety of ordinary Europeans who may face real nuclear threat due to present political gambling. All this revokes the memory of the notoriously known Caribbean Crisis of 1962 with one noticeable difference: the acting Ukrainian leaders are unable to foresee the impact of their own moves.
Sure thing, Kyiv may use nuclear weapons as soon as it gets it, and the whole continent would be subject to this threat. We can’t fully exclude such an apocalyptic scenario, for there are members of nationalistic organizations now in the higher political hierarchy of Ukraine and they are prone to radical moves. One more big worry is the possibility of those nuclear weapons to be just sold, say to ISIS. There are plenty of examples to prove it. Just some months ago Kyiv didn’t bother to sell Syria the military equipment that Americans had supplied to Ukraine. Many mass media outlets were well informed about this. It’s worth noting here that the level of striking the deal was rather high, with the deputy defense minister of Ukraine being involved.
Ukrainian officials and politicians from the very start of military hostilities in Donbas have been making hot money on war. Thus no international control over research work and stuff employed in the activity aimed at creating nuclear weapons can serve a 100% guarantee from greediness and disorder so typical for officials of all ranks in Ukraine.
Washington, Brussels and Berlin are well in the know about the steps of the Ukraine targeted at restoration of its nuclear arsenal. The letter by Peter Altmaier, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, to Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Commander of the NATO Armed Forces in Europe, confirms the fact.
The biggest challenge to Europe’s security and safety of the whole world at present is actually the inability of Kyiv, obsessed with the nuclear ambitions, to effectively control the situation in the country and ensure nuclear technologies aren’t taken out of Ukraine. Corruption at all levels of power is still widespread (since the time Yanukovich fled the country nothing has changed actually); the threat of technological disasters remains high due to insufficient funding; lack of order, chaos and theft are flourishing. The recent huge fire on the oil storage facility near Kyiv and Zaporozhye NPP accident last year visibly show the real state of things in Ukraine. And Chernobyl may look just a minor episode if compared to some hypothetical events that may occur in case nuclear warheads get into the hands of rival oligarchy clans in Ukraine.
According to the letter by Altmaier, the senior officials of the EU and NATO are fully aware of the threat of nuclear weapons emerging in possession of Kyiv. Still they are ready to pacify themselves with it to get some additional ‘power leverage’ in the region. In fact, Altmaier and Breedlove representing the EU and NATO structures don’t care a bit about the safety of ordinary Europeans who may face real nuclear threat due to present political gambling. All this revokes the memory of the notoriously known Caribbean Crisis of 1962 with one noticeable difference: the acting Ukrainian leaders are unable to foresee the impact of their own moves.
Sure thing, Kyiv may use nuclear weapons as soon as it gets it, and the whole continent would be subject to this threat. We can’t fully exclude such an apocalyptic scenario, for there are members of nationalistic organizations now in the higher political hierarchy of Ukraine and they are prone to radical moves. One more big worry is the possibility of those nuclear weapons to be just sold, say to ISIS. There are plenty of examples to prove it. Just some months ago Kyiv didn’t bother to sell Syria the military equipment that Americans had supplied to Ukraine. Many mass media outlets were well informed about this. It’s worth noting here that the level of striking the deal was rather high, with the deputy defense minister of Ukraine being involved.
Ukrainian officials and politicians from the very start of military hostilities in Donbas have been making hot money on war. Thus no international control over research work and stuff employed in the activity aimed at creating nuclear weapons can serve a 100% guarantee from greediness and disorder so typical for officials of all ranks in Ukraine.
George
e-mail:
georgekobzaru@gmail.com