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Comment by _boffin_

7 days ago

I have a few questions about that:

1. Did Ukraine control the nukes, or did Russia?

2. Could Ukraine keep them working on its own?

3. If nukes stop invasions, why do nuclear countries still get attacked?

11 comments

_boffin_

Reply
monocasa  6 days ago

1) It's complex. Formally, Moscow controlled the launch codes. However Ukraine designed and built the ICBMs, and are near the top of nations with the highest nuclear physicist per capita ratio.

On top of that the Soviet nuclear lockout systems are rumored to be much simpler than the American ones. Whereas the American system is rumored to be something like the decryption key for the detonation timings (without which you have at best a dirty bomb), the Soviet lockout mechanism is rumored to just be a lockout device with a 'is locked' signal going to the physics package. If that's all true, taking control of those nukes from a technical perspective would be on the order of hotwiring a 1950s automobile.

Taking physical control would have been more complex, but everything was both more complex and in some ways a lot simpler as the wall fell. It would have ultimately been a negotiation.

2) See above.

3) Which military nuclear power has been attacked by the kind of adversary that you can throw a nuke at? Yes, it doesn't remove all threats, but no solution does. Removing a class of threat (and arguably the most powerful class of threat in concrete terms) is extremely valuable.

  • justsomehnguy  6 days ago

    > However Ukraine designed and built the ICBMs

    Your computer is designed and built in China therefore your computer belongs to Chinese and China. Right?

    > See above

    Maybe you should see how good the Ukraine was at keeping their naval assets after they used the totally legal methods to obtain them. Maybe then you would have a clue on how good they could had maintained them.

    • monocasa  6 days ago

      > Your computer is designed and built in China therefore your computer belongs to Chinese and China. Right?

      The previous owner was the USSR, who ceased to exist, and who Ukraine was a part of.

      > Maybe you should see how good the Ukraine was at keeping their naval assets after they used the totally legal methods to obtain them. Maybe then you would have a clue on how good they could had maintained them.

      Are you talking about the ships that weren't originally that Russia mostly scuttled on their way out of Sevastopal, in addition to stuff like a 70% completed nuclear powered carrier that even Russia couldn't maintain the sister to, and didn't fit in any naval doctrine that made sense for Ukraine?

      4 replies →

    • cwillu  6 days ago

      > Your computer is designed and built in China therefore your computer belongs to Chinese and China. Right?

      The question is whether china would be capable of maintaining the equipment they created and have physical possession of, not whether they can root it without physical access.