Interesting: news[1] just came out of Russia accusing Ukraine of working on a dirty bomb. This makes the letter seem more plausible, if it really preceeds the news.
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-without-evidence...
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-without-evidence...
edit: here https://www.wykop.pl/wpis/64199473/translator-z-rosyjskiego-... and this was given as original source: https://t.me/Tsaplienko/1785 (last edited: Mar 4 at 18:29)
2009: https://www.rt.com/news/the-price-of-mass-destruction/
>Ukraine’s security service has arrested a group suspected of trying to sell a container of radioactive material. Officials say there was enough of the substance to create a dirty bomb, which could have posed a serious threat to the entire region.
2014: https://www.rt.com/news/ukraine-nuclear-arsenal-threat-314/
> While the uranium Ukraine gets from Russia for its reactors is low-enriched, reactor waste is quite enough to make a so-called dirty bomb. The country possesses manpower and know-how to do that as well as delivery vehicles for nuclear payload, which don’t have to be too sophisticated.
2015: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/311869-uranium-ukraine-nuclear-poro...
> According to Ukraine's security forces, they have seized nuclear material from a criminal gang that was trying to sell it. The substance is said to be Uranium-238, which can be used to create a so-called 'dirty bomb'
edit: Clarification for the many downvoting, this is in response to OP specifically saying "This makes the letter seem more plausible, if it really preceeds the news".
1. Ukraine is run by the first Jewish Nazi president. So obviously they needed to be denazified
2. Russia does not want a NATO country on it's borders. That is why it invaded a country with four NATO borders
3. Ukraine has WMDs!
4. Ukraine is actually just a part of Russia, and the Soviet Union just messed up and drew a random border. No reason to care what the Ukrainians think
Not commenting on the other points but I think the general idea was to create a border state between Russia proper and said NATO countries, maybe out of the whole Ukraine with a Russian puppet as president, or out of several Ukrainian statelets. If it matters I do live in one of those NATO countries bordering Ukraine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220226224717/https://ria.ru/20...
Russias hyper aggressive policy against Ukraine has bitten them in the ass. I believe a softer approach would have been better. Focus on strengthening economic and cultural ties. Have Ukraine to be Russia sympathetic country instead of a Russian controlled one.
Edit: If Russia really needs buffer - it is big country, they can create it inside Russia`s border. But they do not need this buffer because Russia`s army compared to NATO is nothing - buffer would not help. But Russia has more nuclear missiles then NATO. And that is more powerful then some mythical buffer zone.
plus they need Mariupol and the protected black sea harbors.
A country not in NATO, and with no imminent prospects of membership, unlike the five NATO countries that actually share a land border with Russia.
At best, this does absolutely nothing about the amount of NATO on Russias border.
“Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFV5nw1UUNY&t=900s
That “Budapest Memorandum” is this one:
“Until Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, it had the world's third-largest nuclear weapons stockpile, of which Ukraine had physical but no operational control. Russia controlled the codes needed to operate the nuclear weapons through electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system, although this could not be sufficient guarantee against Ukrainian access. Formally, these weapons were controlled by the Commonwealth of Independent States.”
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly commented on the Budapest Memorandum by arguing that it provides no true guarantee of safety due to Russia's coercive power. On 19 February 2022, Zelenskyy made a speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he said «Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum. Three times without success. Today Ukraine will do it for the fourth time. ... If they do not happen again or their results do not guarantee security for our country, Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt.» Putin used Zelenskyy's comments as part of his claims that Ukraine could develop nuclear weapons. Critics have disputed Putin's claims. This treaty has since been violated by Russia at the outbreak of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Securit...
This might be what some interpret as Ukraine seeking to acquire nuclear weapons in the near future.
Has nothing to do with the facts, the assistance is just a way to make the same propaganda be anti-US and anti-Ukrainian.