(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many people in Ukraine think the country was right to give up its nuclear ambitions, according to a poll by the Kiev Gorshenin Institute of Management Issues. 46 per cent of respondents think renouncing nuclear weapons in 1993 was the right decision, and 49.7 per cent think Ukraine should not try to regain its status as a nuclear state.

In April 1986, an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant killed more than 10,000 people. An investigation concluded that flaws in the reactor’s design caused a power surge, triggering the event. Radioactive debris from the Chernobyl meltdown reached as far as Scandinavia. According to the Ukrainian government, more than 3.5 million people became ill as a result of the accident.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan all had nuclear weapons on their soil. The three countries decided to return the arms to Russia.

Ukraine is expected to be invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) next month. Russia has threatened Ukraine with pointing nuclear weapons at it if it joins NATO and accepts to take part in a United States missile defence system in Central Europe.

In mid-February, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko assured that his country’s NATO membership would not represent a threat to Russia, adding, "The Ukrainian constitution prohibits the country from allowing a military base for another country or for a military alliance. (...) Nuclear weapons will never be stationed on the territory of Ukraine. Neither our own, nor the weapons of other countries."

Polling Data

On your opinion, was Ukraine right about renouncing the nuclear weapons option in 1993?

Should Ukraine restore the status of nuclear state?

Source: Kiev Gorshenin Institute of Management Issues
Methodology: Interviews with 2,000 Ukrainian adults, conducted from Feb. 7 to Feb. 18, 2008. Margin of error is 2.2 per cent.

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