The Ukraine Crisis Could Have Been A Nuclear One

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How Ukraine’s Crisis Could Have Been a Nuclear Nightmare -- Amy Davidson, New Yorker

Since Sunday, Ukraine’s new, built-in-chaos government has been chasing its ex-President Viktor Yanukovych around the country. He might be in Crimea; there was a helicopter and a convoy of cars, and, as the Times noted, “he was believed to have access to at least one yacht that might ferry him out of Ukraine.” He hasn’t been found yet; nor has the white Pomeranian dog in whose company he was last seen as he was leaving his very large home. This is the man who, when the weekend began, had been in charge of the country and its military. The catalogue of vehicles in which he may have fled brought to mind the closely watched trains that, twenty years ago, carried almost two thousand strategic nuclear warheads out of Ukraine, then a new country. They were being sent to Russia to be destroyed. The deal that made that exodus happen wasn’t easy; it took American brokering and a lot of money, and the burned-out barricades in Kiev and the uncertainty about who’s in charge makes one profoundly grateful for it. Better a loose President than loose warheads.

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My Comment: Ukraine's nuclear stockpiles were removed (thankfully) 20 years ago. The legacy of Chernobyl is one that lives with every Ukrainian today .... the prospect of loose nukes/nuclear material floating around would enrage most Ukrainians regardless of who they support.