Anton # 33:

“Doesn’t the Ukraine have some of the old nukes left over from the USSR?”

No, they don’t. There was an absolute mad scramble for the former Soviet republics to get rid of anything that even looked like an offensive capability, especially nuclear. One of them even had some Backfire bombers that Russia would not take back; they had the USAF come in and destroy them.

The Czechs found that the Soviets had cheated on the INF treaty and deployed theater nuclear missiles to replace those they had removed when we took the Tomahawks and Pershings out of europe under that agreement. the Russians removed the nukes but left the missiles, which the Czechs invited everyone in to see as proof of Russian concepts of integrity before they destroyed them.

But the Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary, have not only a realistic attitude toward Czar Putin but some significant technical capabilities. Ukraine even makes ballistic missiles and space boosters. All they really need is some leadership and assurance from the US that we are behind them. Think that will happen?