Good Question: Why didn’t Ukraine become a NATO member back in the 1990s?

[Boats]

Good Question: Why didn’t Ukraine become a NATO member back in the 1990s?
By: Philip Greenspun's Weblog - 03-01-22
Re: https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/20...-in-the-1990s/

In a comment on MIT weighs in regarding the war in Ukraine, Paul write the following:

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_190542.htm

Sure looks like NATO poking the Russian bear to me.

What’s inside the referenced January 10, 2022 NATO document?

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General: On membership. We have reiterated the decision we made at the Bucharest Summit in 2008 and we stand by that decision. We help Ukraine to move towards a NATO membership by implementing reforms, by meeting NATO standards. … Meaning that it is for Ukraine and the 30 NATO Allies to decide when Ukraine is ready for membership.

Let’s ignore for the moment the question of whether it was wise, as Russian forces gathered on the borders of Ukraine, to talk about the inevitability of Ukraine’s future membership in NATO, exactly what the Russians were objecting to. The question for today’s post regards “NATO standards”.

Let’s step back and look at Jens Stoltenberg? Wikipedia says Mx. Stoltenberg is “a Norwegian politician”. He/she/ze/they is not someone with military experience, in other words, and yet he/she/ze/they leads what is supposedly a military enterprise. Below is a 2018 meeting where we can see how mild-mannered he/she/ze/they is compared to Donald Trump, who points out that Germany’s continued fossil fuel purchases from Russia work against the organization’s mission.

Hindsight is 20/20, but if the goal was to have Ukraine as part of NATO, why wasn’t that done in 1994, when the Budapest Memorandum was signed? Putin’s leadership of Russia did not begin until 1999.

NATO in January 2022 said that Ukraine could join NATO “by implementing reforms” and “by meeting NATO standards,” but what was deficient about Ukraine from NATO’s perspective? It can’t be about fighting spirit, can it? There are plenty of countries in NATO that are not renowned for military valor. What “reforms” did Ukraine need? They had already stopped paying Hunter Biden (and, indirectly, “the big guy”, though $2.5 million of this cash was harvested by a retired-stripper-turned-family-court-entrepreneur; see BBC for a summary), right?

If countries that have historically crumbled at the first hint of a foreign invasion can be part of NATO, what was the obstacle to Ukraine’s membership years or decades ago?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK - Now what was the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances
Re: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budape...ity_Assurances

It's a long report but interesting with many more specifics and details - I'd read it if
I were you.

Go to the link above plenty of specifics and details reqarding Ukraine giving up
its nuclear weapons - it had the world's third-largest nuclear weapons stockpile
and guess who got them Mother Russia with all their codes as well. You wonder
how and where Russia got all these nukes well read this post it will give you
a good idea.

Current status of Russian Nukes based on START II Treaty:
-
The START II Treaty called for a reduction to a total of 3,000 to 3,500 warheads,
- but - "was not ratified by the Russian Duma." The replacement 2002 Strategic
Offensive Reductions Treaty delayed reductions to 2012, with a limit of 2,200
operationally deployed warheads. The New START treaty signed in 2010 commits
to lowering that limit to 1,550 warheads, and was ratified by the Russian Duma
on 26 January 2011.
-
But: Ukraine once had the world's 3rd largest stockpile of nukes and this is
where Russia got 1700 more nukes to stock pile. More than agreed to by NATO
or the START II treaty - but they still went to Russia - hence his nukes are twice
everyone elses to date. I think - I heard Russia is close to 5 or 6000 nukes in its
arsenal - more than allowed: By the START II Treaty.