RJSimmon
Ukraine agreed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. (The Memorandum originally was signed by three nuclear powers: the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom with China and France giving individual assurances in separate documents.)
Ukraine gave up 1/3 of the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpile.
Ukraine could not respond to Russian aggression because Putin would THEN have rationale to interpret to the world his need to PROTECT Russians in Crimea & now eastern Ukraine.
Remember, Putin controls Russian media. That is why you & I have NOT seen or heard of the protests to support Ukraine IN RUSSIA!
Putin had to CREATE provocation of PROTECTING Russian-speaking citizens. Russia then moved in creating a PUBLICALLY ‘occupied’ Crimea to hold an “referendum” to annex Crimea. Ukraine vigorously protested the action as a violation of Article 1 of the Budapest Memorandum.
Putin is interested in the Crimea for the port of Sevastopol. His interests in the Ukraine are fleeting if at all. Further, I could not care less about alleged protests in support of the Ukraine in Russia. We have protests in the US for various things that are all crap as well. Russia has taken very few aggressive steps towards the Ukraine that can not be militarily linked as protection for the Crimea and the Russian troops staged there. If Putin had wanted the Ukraine, the flag of the Russian Federation would be flying over parlaiment from day 1. NATO would have been powerless to stop it. The ripple effect thereafter would have been a mess and Vlad probably would have lost if NATO countered, but he has little to no interest in the Ukraine so there he sits until the political landscape stabilizes.