Kiev was forced to abandon nuclear weapons because of the risk of economic punishment from the United States, told about it on air "24 channel" the ex-President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.
He added that in addition to external pressure were also internal problems, most importantly - economic, as money for the maintenance of a huge army was not.
before Kravchuk said that if Ukraine did not want a nuclear weapon, it would be like a " monkey with a grenade ". He said that he had no regrets about the decision to eliminate the nuclear stockpiles of the country.
After the destruction of the USSR, Kyiv inherited a large nuclear stockpile. It consisted of 1, 7 thousand nuclear warheads, 176 Intercontinental ballistic missiles and 44 strategic bombers. However, in 1994, Ukraine, Russia, USA and Britain signed the Budapest Memorandum, which served as an international agreement on security assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.
According to the Treaty, nuclear stockpile in Ukraine were eliminated, and the nuclear powers undertook to guarantee the safety of Kiev.
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