Just like every single sane person with even the smallest sense of decency, I was stunned by the circus in the Oval Office on Friday. I was stunned into silence. But that doesn’t mean the wheels in the old noggin weren’t turning. And I have a few questions in my mind.
One is a question that has been nagging me for a while, a question of vague memories of long ago. I remember the 1990s only dimly, because I’m old. At that time, I was living in NY, having recently received my Master, and I was interested in other things than European politics. But one thing that is quite clear for me was the opening up of access to eastern Europe for people from the West, and a lot of political questions being tossed around. I remember the conversations about what was to happen to NATO, now that the Cold War was over, and what was to be the new basis for NATO’s existence.
But related to those conversations, I also remember the talk of nuclear weapons in Europe. At that time, the Ukrainians had a significant nuclear arsenal. That included approximately 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads, between 2,650 and 4,200 tactical nuclear weapons, 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and 44 strategic bombers. In fact, this made Ukraine the 3rd largest nuclear power at the time.
Soldiers lay a nuclear warhead in a container on January 4, 1992. Most tactical nuclear weapons were transferred from Ukraine to Russia.
And I remember negotiations being reported in the press that the nuclear weapons were to be removed. If they were to be removed, assurances were made to protect those countries against aggressors in the future. One of those countries was Ukraine. And yes, in fact, Ukraine gave up lots of weapons. It gave up nuclear arsenal through several agreements. First it ratified the Lisbon Protocol to START I in 1992. Then in 1994, Ukraine joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. By 1996, all strategic warheads were transferred to Russia. As of 2001, all nuclear weapons had been transferred to Russia for dismantling and by 2002, all ICBM silos were destroyed (source). And they remain committed to nuclear non-proliferation to this day.
So, no, Donny, Zelensky did not need to kiss your ring. He was thankful enough, but in fact, we owed Ukraine too, for giving up the means to protect themselves properly in the name of world peace. In exchange for those monumental acts all those years ago, Ukraine had received security assurances from the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom. In fact, we owe them this.
Now, over thirty years later, things look different. I’m older and have fostered a fervent interest in politics both personally and professionally. European politics have become much more important, as today, I live in the farthest reaches of eastern Germany, a day’s drive from the Ukrainian border. And so, now, another thought is running through my speechless mind: the question of why was Zelensky there last Friday anyway, subjecting himself to that humiliation. He wasn’t there asking for arms to continue his fight again Russian incursions into his territory. He too had already been talking about ending the war. There were already mumblings of giving up control of some territories in the conversation. Zelensky’s main stumbling block was he needed the assurance that further aggressions would be halted. That the end of the war really was the end of the war.