By that reason they were nobody's nukes. Ukraine was a successor state of the USSR, and operational control of the weapons was a technological matter, not a political matter. The weapons delivery systems (missiles and heavy bombers) were located in Ukraine, as were the development and production chains.
In other words, the actual people who built the missiles would simply swap out an electronic control component to acquire operation control of the devices. These are the same people who voted >90% for Ukrainian independence and who distrusted the other large USSR successor state, Russia.
In other words, the actual people who built the missiles would simply swap out an electronic control component to acquire operation control of the devices. These are the same people who voted >90% for Ukrainian independence and who distrusted the other large USSR successor state, Russia.