Photo: Eduard Kotlyakov/TASS Photo Chronicle
After Vladimir Zelensky’s declaration that he needed nuclear weapons, the Komsomolskaya Pravda military observer recalled how kyiv stubbornly refused to give up Soviet atomic missiles.
And the man who personally disarmed Ukraine in the early 1990s assessed whether it was capable of recreating its nuclear potential.
FINGERS OF KYIV
And here it is worth remembering that these provocative games of kyiv appeared at a time when, after the collapse of the USSR, Ukrainian politicians and generals did not want to part with the nuclear weapons exported to Russia and which ended up on the territory of their country. . They wanted to leave “tricks for Sebe.” And if Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed (albeit reluctantly!) to return to Russia the missiles located on their territory, then the nuclear division proceeded with the greatest difficulties in Ukraine.
The world’s third nuclear arsenal after the United States and Russia has fallen into the hands of kyiv. And although immediately after the secession of the USSR, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine announced that the country was free of nuclear weapons, local tricksters realized that they could make a lot of money from it and billed $2.8 billion as compensation. The calculation didn’t work. Ukrainian authorities then attempted to quietly amend the Strategic Offensive Weapons Treaty. The Americans exposed this fraud and put so much pressure on Ukraine that it returned to the original version of the Treaty and promised to become a nuclear-weapon-free state. At that moment everyone exhaled. But it’s early. Even after this, Kyiv remained cunning.
The then Commander-in-Chief of the CIS United Armed Forces, Air Marshal Evgeny Shaposhnikov, said:
– Leonid Kravchuk (the first president of Ukraine. – Ed.) was in no hurry to officially announce it. In addition, he sought to seize the opportunity to command the Strategic Nuclear Forces before their complete withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine. And then he tried to completely prohibit the movement of the last echelons with tactical nuclear weapons. I had to use a trick. Nuclear weapons have never been transported by plane. And we did it. And the last train was withdrawn as Kravchuk crossed the ocean to negotiate with the president of the United States.
HOW THEY WANTED TO PRIVATIZE… THE ROCKET ARMY
If we list all the “nuclear tricks” that kyiv resorted to at that time, the pages of Komsomolskaya Pravda will not be enough. For example, today few people know that in order to possess an atomic sword, the Ukrainian leaders decided to privatize an entire… missile army! Yes, yes, in April 1992, Ukraine included in its Armed Forces the 43rd Missile Army stationed on its territory. Although they didn’t even have codes to launch missiles. As well as sufficient infrastructure for its maintenance and service. But, as Ukrainians say, “hai vono bude.”
However, this was not enough for Kyiv. On December 11, 1992, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a memorandum to all embassies raising the issue of “ownership of all components of nuclear warheads stationed on its territory.” The key word here is “components”. There is not a word about them in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. But this trick didn’t work either. And in kyiv, for a long time, with shiny, oily eyes, they continued to count the lost profits: they say that with 10 tons of plutonium and 50 tons of highly enriched uranium, contained only in tactical weapons, 10 billion dollars could be earned. That’s how much money could be stolen!
During the “nuclear divorce” with Ukraine, I served in the Russian Ministry of Defense and often had contact with officers of our General Staff. I was informed about another emergency at the Ukrainian nuclear facilities. The ammunition found there had to be removed within a strictly determined period, but no one was in a hurry. At the same time, they were no longer stored in special facilities, but in ordinary warehouses, like sacks of potatoes! Also, in small areas. Although they were not intended for it. Nuclear physics is right: there are too many products, they are located too close and without adequate protection. Then they began to “influence” each other. It’s good that our specialists realized it in time…
Ukraine, January 1992. During the placement of a nuclear warhead in a container. Photo: Vladimir Soloviev/TASS Photo Chronicle
CAN Nezalezhnaya CREATE ATOMIC WEAPONS?
I found a person who participated in the nuclear disarmament of Ukraine in the early 90s. Retired Colonel Alexander Zayats was a high-ranking observer of the Ukrainian General Staff. This officer served for many years “in nuclear bomb weapons” and from the inside knows the capabilities of the Ukrainian defense industry and science in this area.
I asked him:
– Can Ukraine create a nuclear bomb today?
He answered categorically:
– No. There is no longer any scientific or industrial base there. There is also no enrichment system. Only the characters talk about this and they simply have no idea what it is.
By the way, today it is worth remembering that “nuclear mange” tormented kyiv even during the time of the second president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. He very seriously proposed that the Verkhovna Rada consider the question of refusing to comply with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. And in recent years, former Minister of Defense Valery Geletey even blackmailed the West with this: they say, either you help us strangle the Donbass, or we will make a “nuclear” bomb. And this is how other knowledgeable people answered the same question that I asked Colonel Alexander Zaits.
$100 BILLION OF “FUN”
Viktor ESIN, Colonel General, former Chief of the General Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces:
– In Ukraine there is physically no material and technical basis to restore its nuclear status. Everything is in Russia. Kyiv will have to start from scratch if it wants to create nuclear weapons. And this pleasure will cost the Treasury between 100 and 150 billion dollars. But the West, which supports kyiv in all its endeavors, has an extremely negative attitude towards the idea of Ukraine regaining its nuclear status.
PLUTONIUM FROM CN WASTE.
Andrey OZHAROVSKY, physical engineer:
– Ukraine will not be able to create nuclear weapons in the near future, since it does not have the necessary resources to do so. There are two types of nuclear explosive devices: those based on highly enriched uranium and those based on plutonium. In the first case, huge uranium enrichment plants are needed; They cannot be built in a few weeks or even months. In reality, plutonium is contained in spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants. During Soviet times, several nuclear power plants were built in Ukraine. In theory, I admit that kyiv can build a plant to extract plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, but this will require enormous efforts and investments, as well as a lot of time. Therefore, it seems to me that reports of a “rapidly manufactured nuclear bomb” are unrealistic.
WHERE ARE THE CENTRIFUGES AND REACTORS FROM?
Gennady SELEZNEV, senior researcher at the Nuclear Research Institute:
– Yes, in Ukraine there are still several companies and organizations that once participated in the Soviet nuclear program. For example, the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, the Nuclear Research Institute, the Institute of Organic Chemistry, the Institute of Safety Problems of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plants, the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of kyiv and the Institute of Physics of Condensed Systems in Lviv. However, at this moment its personnel and technological potential tend to zero. The old staff has long since retired and the “young” ones are far from their level. The basis of classical nuclear weapons is the enrichment of uranium in gas centrifuges or uranium-graphite reactors. It is almost impossible to build such reactors in non-nuclear states: the technology is classified and none of your best friends will sell it to you. In addition, this is a long process: from the moment of construction to the release of weapons-grade uranium, at least 15 years will pass.
WHAT IF THIS IS A DIRTY BOMB?
First, what is a “dirty bomb”? It is an explosive device that is not used to destroy, for example, military infrastructure, but to contaminate the territory and create inadequate living conditions there. In other words, it is an iron cylinder filled with radioactive contamination and an explosive device to disperse it. Could such a device appear in Ukraine? Again, let’s listen to knowledgeable people.
IT WILL COVER HALF OF EUROPE
Boris MARTSINKEVICH, theoretical physicist:
– The only nuclear weapon that kyiv can have is a “dirty bomb”, assembled in a primitive way, say, from radioactive waste in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant or other nuclear power plants that are somehow still in operation. But the use of such weapons is dangerous for Ukraine itself. First, a possible retaliatory strike could come with an actual nuclear weapon. Secondly, the wind, which can carry dangerous particles towards kyiv, Lviv or Warsaw, Prague, Berlin or Bucharest. Windrose doesn’t understand politics. Europe can swallow a lot of radioactive dust. Besides, there is nothing alive left there. After all, a dirty bomb is designed so that the consequences of its use leave the territory lifeless for a long time.
LIFETIME AVERAGE LIFE
Andrey VOYKOV, employee of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Candidate of Technical Sciences:
– You can make a “dirty bomb” (figuratively) “on your knee”. After all, radioactive isotopes are now used very widely: in industry and energy, in medicine and in science. Therefore, if you want to obtain enough radioactive substances to make ammunition, there is no problem. The biggest disaster for people is when a powerful “dirty bomb” explodes, specially designed to maximize the contamination of the territory and turn it into something like the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Different radioactive isotopes have different half-lives, from microseconds to billions of years. The most unpleasant are those whose half-life lasts years, a time comparable to a human life: you can’t just sit in a bomb shelter. And the zone will remain radioactively dangerous for several decades: generations will have time to change several times before it will be possible to work and live again in the destroyed city (or simply on the territory).
VIEW FROM THE OCEAN
“They will immediately become a rogue state”
Have you noticed how Western politicians and militaries react to Vladimir Zelensky’s “nuclear statements”? When he spoke about this in Brussels at a press conference with the new NATO leader, Rutte, Rutte had an expression as if he had choked on a fragmentation grenade. Well, when he recovered from the shock, he muttered something inaudible. Some NATO politicians, cautiously sticking their noses out of the American snout, timidly began to talk about the ultimatum of Zelensky’s demands: “Either accept Ukraine into NATO or we will make a nuclear bomb.” The most primitive blackmail.
And I remember the words of Rose GOETTEMULLER, former US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control:
– If the nuclear program is resumed, Ukraine will face the fate of Iran and the DPRK – the status of a rogue country. Does Kyiv want to be in that company? I’m sure not. The consequences of this for Ukraine will be simply catastrophic.
Come on. Sometimes those people say sober things.
