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1) It's complex. Formally, Moscow controlled the launch codes. However Ukraine designed and built the ICBMs, and are near the top of nations with the highest nuclear physicist per capita ratio.

On top of that the Soviet nuclear lockout systems are rumored to be much simpler than the American ones. Whereas the American system is rumored to be something like the decryption key for the detonation timings (without which you have at best a dirty bomb), the Soviet lockout mechanism is rumored to just be a lockout device with a 'is locked' signal going to the physics package. If that's all true, taking control of those nukes from a technical perspective would be on the order of hotwiring a 1950s automobile.

Taking physical control would have been more complex, but everything was both more complex and in some ways a lot simpler as the wall fell. It would have ultimately been a negotiation.

2) See above.

3) Which military nuclear power has been attacked by the kind of adversary that you can throw a nuke at? Yes, it doesn't remove all threats, but no solution does. Removing a class of threat (and arguably the most powerful class of threat in concrete terms) is extremely valuable.



> However Ukraine designed and built the ICBMs

Your computer is designed and built in China therefore your computer belongs to Chinese and China. Right?

> See above

Maybe you should see how good the Ukraine was at keeping their naval assets after they used the totally legal methods to obtain them. Maybe then you would have a clue on how good they could had maintained them.


> Your computer is designed and built in China therefore your computer belongs to Chinese and China. Right?

The previous owner was the USSR, who ceased to exist, and who Ukraine was a part of.

> Maybe you should see how good the Ukraine was at keeping their naval assets after they used the totally legal methods to obtain them. Maybe then you would have a clue on how good they could had maintained them.

Are you talking about the ships that weren't originally that Russia mostly scuttled on their way out of Sevastopal, in addition to stuff like a 70% completed nuclear powered carrier that even Russia couldn't maintain the sister to, and didn't fit in any naval doctrine that made sense for Ukraine?


> The previous owner was the USSR

Not quite.

> and who Ukraine was a part of

Oh, so there were some wedding contract what stated what in case the parties.. part - there would be the transfer and division of assets? When why Belorussia didn't received their part of the navy? Kazakhstan? Georgia? Baltics, because they surely "were parts of USSR"?

> Are you talking about the ships that weren't originally

That weren't originally what? I know you degraded to just throwing words with your blanket knowledge but again you can find out the fate of the ships the Ukraine used totally legit means to obtain from Russian Federation with a quite short trip to Wikipedia.


> I know you degraded to just throwing words with your blanket knowledge

This is uncalled for: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Why not take the thread somewhere constructive by writing out a more complete, stronger argument?


> Not quite.

Actually, exactly. We're specifically talking about the arsenal of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. A force not reorganized until much later to be under the Russian Federation, and the relevant 1990 Budapest Memorandum occurred before the 1991 creation of the CIS.

Rather than a vague "not quite", would you care to elaborate?

> Oh, so there were some wedding contract what stated what in case the parties.. part - there would be the transfer and division of assets? When why Belorussia didn't received their part of the navy? Kazakhstan? Georgia? Baltics, because they surely "were parts of USSR"?

I think a divorce settlement is actually a pretty good model actually. Those other states rankly didn't have the means to keep them, but should have been otherwise compensated for that loss. However, as I described above, Ukraine literally designed and built large portions of these systems as was capable of keeping them.

> That weren't originally what? I know you degraded to just throwing words with your blanket knowledge but again you can find out the fate of the ships the Ukraine used totally legit means to obtain from Russian Federation with a quite short trip to Wikipedia.

I'm dyslexic and accidentally a word while editing. Are you incapable of telling what was meant by context, or where you just looking for a reason not to address the point made?


> of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces

Good, you made a first step, now do the other two.

> but should have been otherwise compensated for that loss

It's quite amusing what you are clearly imply what some state shouldn't be compensated at all.

> Are you incapable of telling what was meant by context, or where you just looking for a reason not to address the point made?

Yes, I'm incapable of telling why you threw something completely unrelated to the question. I'm not LLM.

> Ukraine literally designed and built large portions of these systems as was capable of keeping them.

Ah, yes, the mighty Ukraine who solely done that, right? Every other nation, state and people in the USSR didn't do shit to that. I have a feeling you are thinking about that issue as some sort of video game: just a couple of factories and a bunch of special units. But the things are not like that in RL.


> Your computer is designed and built in China therefore your computer belongs to Chinese and China. Right?

The question is whether china would be capable of maintaining the equipment they created and have physical possession of, not whether they can root it without physical access.




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