According to Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Ukraine may have made a mistake in going nuke-free.

Ukraine may have to arm itself with nuclear weapons if the United States and other world powers refuse to enforce a security pact that obligates them to reverse the Moscow-backed takeover of Crimea, a member of the Ukraine parliament told USA TODAY.

The United States, Great Britain and Russia agreed in a pact “to assure Ukraine’s territorial integrity” in return for Ukraine giving up a nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union after declaring independence in 1991, said Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

“We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement,” said Rizanenko, a member of the Udar Party headed by Vitali Klitschko, a candidate for president. “Now there’s a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake.”

Granted, he’s speaking for himself, but a nuclear-armed Ukraine could certainly make things rather dicey in that part of Europe. There are currently four nuclear power plants in Ukraine; three of them are in the western part of the country, so Ukraine going nuclear-armed isn’t outside the realm of possibility. They have the know-how, after all.

usatoday.com