Everyone must have learned a lot about the story of Ukraine in recent days, and many people are laughing at Ukraine's riotous operation, which is being played around by the Americans. One of the most mentally retarded is that he took the initiative to destroy so many top strategic **, especially nuclear**.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, according to the number of troops and equipment it had at that time, Ukraine was the third largest military power in the world after the United States and Russia, and even China's family background at that time could not be compared with Ukraine.
For Ukraine's practice of destroying **, many people think that this is self-defeating, and it is true that Ukraine's international status and military strength have declined rapidly since then. Today, Ukraine not only has no decent equipment in its hands, but it can't even afford to raise an army.
So is the leader of Ukraine really mentally retarded? Don't they understand the dangers of doing so? Are the facts really as bizarre as we see them now?
There are not so many things that violate common sense in this world, it's just that we haven't seen the truth clearly, and Ukraine's self-abandonment of martial arts is by no means its own death, but forced by the situation and has to do it as a last resort.
As we all know, western Ukraine has a vast plain, and there is fertile black soil, which covers one-third of the world's total area, and is the best grain producing area, and has the reputation of "the breadbasket of Europe".
Its eastern region is the most important coal mining area and iron-smelting production area of the former Soviet Union, where most of the heavy industry and military enterprises of the Soviet Union are concentrated, and it is the most important industrial center.
Although Ukraine is blessed with unique industrial and agricultural conditions, we cannot look at the problem in isolation from reality, and no country on the earth exists alone. The specific state of each country and even each individual is closely related to the objective environment in which it lives. So, in order for us to really understand Ukraine, we must first figure out the environment in which it is located.
So what is the environment in which Ukraine finds itself? Ukraine has been described as "in the most dangerous geopolitical environment in the world!"
Some people describe it as a buffer zone on the brink of war at any time. Others said more bluntly, this is the worst investment environment in the world, and no one will want to invest here, unless he is crazy!
Why is it that the fertile and fertile Ukraine is in such a harsh environment?
If you know the history of Ukraine, you will find that the people of this land have not lived a few days for thousands of years.
Ever since Kiev was captured by the Mongols in the 13th century, it has been constantly being fought and plundered. The Ukrainians, tormented and ravaged by war, have been ruled by foreigners, and have not been able to establish an independent state of their own.
That's why Putin said that Ukraine is a country that does not exist at all! Indeed, before the collapse of the USSR, there was not an independent sovereign state called "Ukraine" in the history of the world.
This is what we Chinese often call "the place where soldiers must fight". It's not a good word, it's definitely not a good place, fight all day long, can you have a good life?
The objective environment is not something that Ukraine can decide, but is created by its neighbors on the east and west sides. To the east is Russia, Ukraine's close relative, and to the west is their like-minded friend, Western Europe.
If the two neighbors have a harmonious relationship, then Ukraine will naturally be able to live its own nourishing life with peace of mind. But these two sides are enemies who are incompatible, and they have met with one word "fight" from ancient times to the present.
Don't look at the current relations between the Western European continent and Russia, in fact, it is because there are Americans in front, and when the United States declines and retreats in the future, the Europeans will immediately raise a strong army to continue to resist Russia.
Because the Europeans and Russians have been fighting for hundreds of years and know them too well. Expansion to the west, a thousand-year-old plan of the Russians, has been engraved into their genes, and they will expand westward whenever they have the opportunity, and even more so now.
Since the needles on both sides are facing Maimang, then Ukraine, which is in the middle ground, has become a rat in the bellows, angry at both ends.
Russia sees Ukraine as the last barrier to defend against Western Europe, and NATO sees Ukraine as an important position to contain and weaken Russia.
Although both sides attach great importance to Ukraine, both sides did not spend money on it, but caught it and bullied it. The reason for this is that the Ukrainians themselves are too weak and do not seem to have learned how to stand on the international stage as an independent sovereign state.
The foreign policy of the Ukrainians seems naïve and innocent, how can they be the opponents of such old powers as Europe, the United States and Russia.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine's rapid declaration of independence, and its inheritance of much of the Soviet Union's legacy are enough to make people salivate even today.
The USSR left Ukraine more than 7,000 armored vehicles, more than 6,000 tanks, more than 1,500 military aircraft of various types, and more than 350 aircraft of all kinds, including aircraft carriers.
There are also 25 White Swan, Tu-160 long-range strategic bombers. A large number of Soviet nuclear ** also remained in Ukraine, including 1,270 nuclear warheads and 2,480 tactical nuclear missiles. In addition, there is a whole Black Sea Fleet.
There are also more than 3,000 military-industrial enterprises in the eastern regions of Ukraine, capable of manufacturing all kinds of ** equipment.
The only Black Sea shipyard in the USSR capable of manufacturing and repairing aircraft carriers, the Antonov Design Bureau, which designed the world's largest aircraft, the An-225, the Madasich Aero Engine Plant, and the ballistic missile production plant.
Any of these industries were at the world's top level at the time.
The wealth that Ukraine has inherited is indeed huge, but it also depends on whom. A mouth-watering meal is a mouth-watering meal, but first you have to have a big appetite, otherwise it will be worse than starving.
The Ukrainians, who grew up on the fertile black soil, are not as belligerent as the Russians, and they do not have much ambition for expansion, they just want to farm well and get by, and it is useless to ask for so much.
In addition, these high-end ** are not cold weapons, as long as they are wiped clean and put away. These things need regular maintenance, as well as replacement of materials and critical components. In short, these are costly, and the cost is huge.
Let's start with these nuclear warheads and tactical nuclear **, which must be maintained and maintained by professionals in specialized warehouses. It needs to be inspected and maintained regularly, and if the maintenance can't keep up, the thing may leak or even get out of control, which can be a problem. If you want to maintain and maintain, you have to use people, land, electricity, and materials, in short, every minute and every second has to spend money.
The most wronged thing is that Ukraine pays money and people to maintain it here, but they can't use these **, and the password is in the hands of Russia. Moreover, the nuclear ** research and manufacturing system is not in Ukraine, they can only save these things, and after they expire, they will be obsolete.
So even if Ukraine has nuclear ** in its hands, it can't protect itself, it can't be used at all.
Besides, Ukraine doesn't want to fight with anyone, and this thing is a hot potato in your hands, but you can't sell it, and you can't throw it away.
At this time, the Americans stood up and pulled Ukraine and Russia together to discuss the destruction of this batch of nuclear weapons, and the Americans paid for it and gave some compensation.
At that time, Yeltsin wanted to ease relations with the United States and Europe, and even made a request to join NATO, so he asked for it, so he agreed to the US proposal, and Ukraine naturally couldn't ask for it.
As a result, the Americans paid about $300 million to ship these more than 1,000 nuclear warheads to Russia for destruction. The reason why it is to be transported to Russia for destruction is due to the fact that Ukraine does not have the place and technology to destroy nuclear warheads.
After fooling Ukraine into throwing away its nuclear ** as they wished, the Americans set their sights on two other deterrent ** in the hands of the Ukrainians, Tu-160 strategic bombers and aircraft carriers.
These two things are still unaffordable for Ukraine. First of all, let's talk about this white swan bomber, this thing is a super piled up by the former Soviet Union. What the Americans are most afraid of is it, this thing is huge but has extremely fast speed, directly break through your air defense system, drop the missile and then turn around and run, the missile will not be able to catch up at all.
But this thing is a pure money-burning guy, and it takes 140 tons of aviation kerosene to fill up the tank on a mission in the sky. Not counting the fuel, the maintenance, maintenance and inspection costs 80,000 US dollars for one takeoff.
And that's just the cost of daily operation, this thing doesn't have a long lifespan, and you have to change the engine after flying a few times. It is equipped with the Kuznetsov NK-32 engine, the world's most powerful engine, with a single thrust of 25 tons. There are four NK-32s in one Tu-160, in short, it is still one word "expensive".
At that time, it was useless for Ukraine to keep these things, and they wanted to sell them, and it was said that China intended to buy them, but after the Americans found out, they resolutely disagreed. Just like some time ago when we were going to buy the company Madasich, the Americans flickered and threatened Ukraine, and in the end they would rather let this company go out of business than sell it.
A total of 25 Tu-160s were manufactured in the former Soviet Union, Russia had six at that time, Ukraine had 19, and finally Russia was given 8, and the remaining 10 were dismantled according to the wishes of the Americans, leaving only one in the museum as a souvenir. So at present, there are only 15 White Swan fighters left in the world.
After dismantling the fighter jets, the only thing that Ukraine still has in its hands to threaten the United States is aircraft carriers. There are many excellent shipyards on the coastline of Ukraine, such as the famous Black Sea shipyard, and the Soviet aircraft carriers were built by Ukraine.
For aircraft carriers, Ukraine wants to stay, but for various reasons, in the end all that is left is a pile of scrap metal.
At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had three aircraft carriers, the Marshal Kuznetsov, which was the only aircraft carrier in service at that time, the name was later taken by the Russians, and it was part of the North Sea Fleet.
Since the ship was in Ukraine at the time, it became their property according to the regulations, but the Russian naval commander ordered all the repair parts of the aircraft carrier to be quietly loaded onto the ship, and then slipped back to Russia at full speed. The Ukrainians can only stare dryly, and there is nothing they can do.
The remaining Varyag had not yet been completed, and the Black Sea Shipyard had financial difficulties at that time, so it was decided to ** this semi-finished ship, which was finally bought back by us through civilian channels.
The other is the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Ulyanovsk. The aircraft carrier was almost complete at that time, only the power system was not fully installed, and as long as the funds were in place, it would soon be able to enter service.
Ukraine attaches great importance to this aircraft carrier, and the Americans see this, they do not want to see this big guy drive out of the shipyard. So they set up a bureau for the Ukrainians, and first arranged for a Norwegian shipping company to find Ukraine and place orders for several large cargo ships.
The Ukrainians are ecstatic, they haven't received such a big order for a long time, but the aircraft carrier is parked in the dock and delayed, and they have to find a way to vacate it.
At this time, an American company found them and said that they wanted to buy the steel on this aircraft carrier, anyway, it is useless to keep this aircraft carrier, it is better to dismantle it and sell it to us, we will sell it.
Ukraine compared it before and after, and even agreed with the Americans and dismantled the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier into scrap metal. As soon as the aircraft carrier was dismantled, Ukraine received two simple messages at the same time, the Norwegians said that the situation had changed, the ship was no longer built, and the deposit was no longer required; The Americans say that the situation has changed, the steel is gone, and the deposit is not needed.
The Ukrainians only reacted at this time and were fooled, but what can be done? Who made you see the money and make you dizzy?
Even so, the Ukrainians are still firmly moving closer to Europe and the United States, so that they have been deceived again and again, but they still do not hesitate.
As mentioned above, Western Ukraine is rich in grain, and Eastern Ukraine is rich in coal and is an industrial center. At that time, the ** of coal was very low, so the profits created were not high, and the industrial center in the east was an important economy of Ukraine**.
However, at that time, Ukraine's huge industrial system did not make Ukraine happy, because the eastern region of Ukraine inherited the "mutual aid" economic system of the former Soviet Union, and most of the products it produced were only in demand in Russia, so it was very dependent on Russia economically.
And the situation in Russia at that time was not optimistic, which led to an industrial downturn in eastern Ukraine. After Putin came to power, Russia began to resurrect, and eastern Ukraine was de-escalated.
Exports of agricultural products account for a very large proportion of Ukraine's state income, but they are again exported to Russia. In 1996, Russia suffered a major blow when it imposed heavy taxes on imports of Ukrainian goods.
Ukraine's dependence on Russia is not only reflected in exports, but also in energy, they rely on Russia for 40% of their natural gas, and without Russia, Ukrainians can only return to the era of burning briquettes.
This situation makes them very uncomfortable, their national policy is pro-European and anti-Russian, but they are economically dependent on Russia. Europe and the United States are trying their best to encourage Ukraine in anti-Russia, but when Ukraine really encounters difficulties, they often stand by and watch, and in the end it is Russia that really pulls Ukraine along.
Immediately after Crimea was recaptured by Russia in 2014, the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine declared independence and went to war with the Ukrainian army. In fact, Ukraine has lost control of the region, lost the economic support of heavy industry centers and coal mines, and its national strength has deteriorated.
Ukraine is one such country, which seems to be blessed with unique resources, but in fact lives in an extremely harsh environment. While trying to survive in the cracks, they are not angry, and those in power are corrupt, fighting for power and profit internally, and weak and bullying externally. Much of the country's series of mediocrity has been influenced by outside forces, and their fate is not in their own hands.
How long the country will survive is not yet conclusive, but the situation is no longer optimistic!