THIS was inevitable even since Ukraine gave up their Soviet era nukes. Dumb dumb dumb!
>> Dumb dumb dumb!
Ukraine absolutely did not have a free hand in this. It’s fantasy football to think they had real agency at that time. Being a fledgling, politically unstable and extremely corrupt ex-Soviet republic, it was made an offer it could not refuse. If Kravchuk, the ex-Soviet boss and 1st president of the independent Ukraine refused, he would have probably be toppled by a joint US / Britain / Russia ops and someone more agreeable would sign in his place.
There was concern in the West the nukes could end up on the market for the highest bidder, like Iran. So everyone at the time was happy with the arrangement.