Prior to ukraine dating australia, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and had Soviet nuclear weapons in its territory. Soviet Union staying together even on a limited scale.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine held about one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at the time, as well as significant means of its design and production. International relations theorist John Mearsheimer predicted a Ukraine without any nuclear deterrent was likely to be subjected to aggression by Russia, but this was very much a minority view at the time. A 2016 study argues that the denuclearization of Ukraine was not a “stupid mistake” and that it is unclear that Ukraine would be better off as a nuclear state. The study argues that the push for Ukrainian independence was with a view to make it a nonnuclear state. On December 5, 1994 the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Britain and the United States signed a memorandum to provide Ukraine with security assurances in connection with its accession to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. The four parties signed the memorandum, containing a preamble and six paragraphs.