Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the gross violation of the Budapest Memorandum, which gave Ukraine security guarantees in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons, actually destroyed the non-proliferation regime.

"It is unfortunate to say that, but Russian aggression has also killed the nuclear non-proliferation regime. In my opinion, we will no longer find any country that would do what Ukraine did," former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, incumbent Chairman of the Centre for Russian Studies Volodymyr Ohryzko said during a panel discussion “Budapest Memorandum: 25 Years since Nuclear Weapons Relinquishing” organized by NGO “Unlimited Democracy” at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

The ex-foreign minister noted that the Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, signed in 1994, was in fact "a chance to lay a solid foundation for global security."

According to Ohryzko, after the USSR had collapsed, Ukraine became the third largest nuclear country in the world, and rockets from its territory could reach "anywhere in the world - from Alaska to Australia." "We had a larger nuclear arsenal than the UK, France and China taken together. This is exactly what Ukraine's nuclear potential was after the collapse of the USSR," he said.

Ukraine inherited huge nuclear stockpile: 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic Tu-95MS and Tu-95MS bombers (from 30 to 43), 1,950 strategic nuclear warheads, 2,833 tactical nuclear warheads.

At the same time, the cost of nuclear weapons (fuel) was estimated to be at least $60-65 billion (with a maximum estimate of $105 billion).

ol