Twenty-five years ago, Ukraine possessed the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. It had inherited 175 long-range missiles and more than 1,800 warheads after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Following two years of talks been the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced a breakthrough on January 10, 1994. Ukraine had agreed to remove all nuclear weapons from its soil in exchange for assurances that Russia would respect its sovereignty.
The Destruction Of Ukraine's Nuclear Arsenal
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U.S. President Bill Clinton announced a breakthrough in talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine at a press conference in Brussels on January 10, 1994. He said Ukraine had agreed to remove all nuclear weapon from its soil, eliminating the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.
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Russian President Boris Yeltsin (left), U.S. President Bill Clinton (center), Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British Prime Minister John Major (right), sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in Budapest, Hungary, on December 5, 1994. Known as the Budapest Memorandum, the agreement officially dismantled Ukraine's nuclear arsenal.
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Police officers remove a protester from a rally in Kyiv on January 12, 1996. He was attending a demonstration organized by several members of Ukraine's parliament who were opposed to the denuclearization deal. As the protester is being thrown into a police van, he clings to a sign demanding the resignation of former Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Shmarov.
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An Ukrainian officer watches a SS-24 nuclear missile booster being removed from its bunker at a military base in southern Ukrainian town of Pervomaysk on September 29, 1998.