Ukraine is seriously considering the possibility of restoring nuclear weapons. This is reported by Bild with reference to a source.
“We have the materials, we have the knowledge. If there is an order, it will only take us a few weeks to get the first bomb,” said a Ukrainian official.
And Western countries should think less about Russia’s red lines and much more about Ukraine’s red lines.
According to analyst Julian Repke, a condition for restoring the nuclear weapons Ukraine has surrendered could be a second attempt by the Russian Federation to go after Kyiv.
Ukrainian nuclear weapons aren’t a credible threat to Russia, for the same reason Russia’s aren’t to Ukraine: It isn’t under an immediate threat of being wiped out, just losing territory. I think this is aimed more at the United States, trying to pressure them into keeping up or increasing aid with the threat of nuclear proliferation (as Japan, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia have done). There is also the possibility that in a Trump administration, loss of US aid could turn the war back into an existential threat where nuclear weapons could be used.
To threaten Russia all you need to do is threaten Moscow and Petersburg. The rest of the country doesn’t exist as far as power structures are concerned.