UKRAINES TWO BIG MISTAKES SURRENDERING NUCLEAR MISSILES AND TRUSTING USA FOR SECURITY
Timeline
- July 16, 1990: Ukraine’s Declaration of Sovereignty
- July 31, 1991: The United States and the Soviet Union sign START
- Dec. 26, 1991: The Soviet Union officially dissolves, delaying entry into force of START
- Dec. 30, 1991: Minsk Agreement on Strategic Forces
- The Commonwealth of Independent States agrees that strategic forces would be under the joint command of the former Soviet Union states
- May 23, 1992: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the United States sign the Lisbon Protocol
- The protocol calls for the return of nuclear weapons in three formerly Soviet states to Russia and for all states to be added to the START treaty and join the NPT
- Jan. 14, 1994: Ukraine, Russia, and the United States sign the Trilateral Statement
- Ukraine commits to full disarmament, including strategic offensive weapons, in exchange for economic support and security assurances from the United States and Russia
- Sept. 4, 1993: Massandra Accords
- Failed summit between Russian and Ukrainian governments
- Dec. 5, 1994: Russia, Ukraine, United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances
- Includes security assurances against the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territory or political independence
- Dec. 5, 1994: Ukraine submits its instrument of accession to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state
- The five START parties exchange instruments of ratification for START, which enters into force
- June 1, 1996: Ukraine transfers its last nuclear warhead to Russia
- October 30, 2001: Ukraine eliminates its last strategic nuclear weapon delivery vehicle
- Dec. 4, 2009: Joint Statement by Russia and the United States
- The two countries confirm the security guarantees made in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum
- March 18, 2014: Russia annexes Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and provides supports an ongoing insurrection by separatist forces in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk provinces of Ukraine.
- Late 2021 to early 2022: Russia engages in "military exercises" with a force estimated to exceed 150,000 military personnel involving land-, sea-, and air-based weaponry on the northern, eastern, and southern borders of Ukraine raising fears of an invasion by Russia.
- February 24, 2022: Russia began a large-scale military attack and invasion of Ukraine, with planes and missile launcher attacks on Ukrainian cities, airports, and military infrastructure across much of the country.
