Some #Soviet history for you:

The technological heart of the #USSR was #Ukraine

#Dnipropetrovsk (aka #Dnipro) was nicknamed "Rocket City" during the #ColdWar

So when #Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian innovation answered. Russia has been paying for that miscalculation ever since, and will pay a lot more for their colossal error

Ukrainian ingenuity will win this stupid war

"Ukraine Quietly Tested Space-Launch Capabilities in Middle of War Twice"

https://united24media.com/latest-news/ukraine-quietly-tested-space-launch-capabilities-in-middle-of-war-twice-17852

#UkraineWar

Ukraine Quietly Tested Space-Launch Capabilities in Middle of War Twice

Ukraine's military intelligence conducted two secret space missions during the war, reaching altitudes of 100km and 204km.

UNITED24 Media

people need to understand:

when europe's bureaucrats and america's fascists go "you're not going to build a nuke, right ukraine?" it makes sense ukraine would nod along

and then quietly build a bomb in secret and show proof to russia

it's not your people being genocided, so who are you to judge

i am against nuclear proliferation in principle, but i also understand theoretical ideals vs cold hard reality

you don't want a ukrainian bomb?

then give ukraine everything they ask for, and more

@benroyce
Right?? If Russia and the US will not honor the Budapest Memorandum, then why should Ukraine?

@MaryAustinBooks

i don't want a ukrainian bomb

you don't want a ukrainian bomb

but it's not us who are having our friends and relatives mass murdered for russia's ethnofascist cruelty, while russia endlessly bloviates about nukes itself

ukrainians don't want a ukrainian bomb!

but ukraine has a coherent need to say: "you nuke kyiv, moscow ceases to exist"

and anyone who thinks this is terrible: it absolutely is

but are you going to blame ukraine for that?

no

this is what russia created

@benroyce @MaryAustinBooks Ukraine already rejected nuclear weapons and the world has now forced them to not only develop them but deploy them as a deterrent as quickly as possible. Don't think every other middle power in the world hasn't noticed.
@mike @benroyce @MaryAustinBooks rejected is not the right word. Ukraine was encouraged to give them up to appease Russia by the Western "Allies" in return for security guarantees from said "Allies". Those same "Allies" did nothing, except a strongly worded letter, when Crimea was taken illegally. If Ukraine had kept its nuclear "deterent", the invasions in 2014 and 2022 would likely not have happened.
@EF @benroyce @MaryAustinBooks Youre preaching to the choir. I'm familiar with how it went down because at the time I felt like they would grow to regret the decision, even thoughit was the wild west.