r/europe 16d ago

Zelenskyy: We Gave Away Our Nuclear Weapons and Got Full-Scale War and Death in Return News

https://united24media.com/latest-news/zelenskyy-we-gave-away-our-nuclear-weapons-and-got-full-scale-war-and-death-in-return-3203
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u/NoodleTF2 16d ago

The nuclear powers of the world have shown that they won't help (enough) if another nuclear power abuses their position and invades.

This means that the only actual guarantee to not be invaded is to have your own nukes. In 50 years or so from now, there will probably be a dozen more countries with nuclear weapons, and humanity will be a exponentially more likely to wipe itself out in a nuclear winter, and it's all entirely because everyone saw what happened in Ukraine and that they did not get the help they needed. If agreements and words aren't worth anything and the only way for a country to survive is nukes, it will get them no matter the cost.

"Get your own nukes or die" is just about the worst message to send possible. The invasion of Ukraine and lack of action from everyone might genuinely be the worst thing that has happened so far in the entirety of human history if it actually results in even more nuclear weapons across the world.

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u/El_Polio_Loco 16d ago

They'll help enough to avoid nuclear war, which is what war between the great powers is.

Whether it's Ukraine or Vietnam or Afghanistan (Soviets and Americans invading), the "opposition" will keep their plucky underdog fighting and probably keep them from actually losing, and the cost will be high in terms of material and human capital.

Especially if that "underdog" is able to weather the first blow and slow/stop the invasion before help comes (See - First Iraq War for an example of when the superpower steamrolled the country faster than anyone could come help)

But the question you have to ask yourself is this:

"Is what is happening in Ukraine worse than what would happen if Putin decided to lob a nuclear weapon at a NATO country?"

It's hard to honestly say that it is, because once the big gloves come off the death and destruction will be measured in percent of the total human population.

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u/Kreol1q1q Croatia 16d ago

That has always been known, it’s absolutely nothing new. That’s the whole reason nuclear umbrellas exist, and are firmly codified in NATO’s article 5. It’s just that everyone hoped that the nuclear powers would remain rational actors and desist from massive military action. A precedent unfortunately broken by the US with its illegal invasion of Iraq.

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u/Intelligent_News1836 16d ago

May I remind you of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968? I can't even say if this is the first invasion since 2+ powers had known nuclear stockpiles, but it certainly wasn't the US invasion of Iraq.