A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Ukraine is insisting any deal to end Russia's war include an ironclad security guarantee to prevent a future invasion. Ukrainians are recalling a past deal that took away its nuclear weapons in exchange for a promise of protection. Here's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley.
HENNADIY VLADIMIROVITCH FIL: (Through interpreter) We go...
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: In the middle of vast farm fields in southern Ukraine lies a secret Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile launch site. Today it's become the Museum of Strategic Missile Forces.
FIL: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: Our guide is retired Rocket Forces commander Lieutenant Colonel Hennadiy Vladimirovitch Fil, who used to serve here.
FIL: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: He says the 10 intercontinental ballistic missiles could reach the U.S. in 25 minutes. Each carried 10 nuclear warheads with 30 times the power of the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. When the USSR broke apart in 1991, Ukraine got its independence and was left with the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal after the U.S. and Russia.
FIL: Bill Clinton.
BEARDSLEY: Then, in 1994, Fil says President Bill Clinton stopped over in Kyiv on his way to Moscow. A deal was later reached for Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: A movie in the museum shows how Ukraine's nuclear missiles were destroyed and jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons dismantled. The 10 silos holding missiles here were filled with concrete, except one kept as an exhibit. More than 30 years ago, that deal, known as the Budapest Memorandum, saw Ukraine surrender its nuclear arsenal in exchange for assurances from the U.S., Britain and Russia that its sovereignty would be respected. Today Ukrainians equate the Budapest Memorandum with betrayal and naivety. Anyone in the streets of Kyiv will tell you Russia would never have invaded had Ukraine kept its nukes. Here's 50-year-old IT worker Andriy Piddubny (ph).
ANDRIY PIDDUBNY: (Through interpreter) Ukraine didn't get any guarantees. It was some kind of romantic approach to sovereignty and a failure to perceive Russia as an enemy in the '90s.
BEARDSLEY: Bill Clinton even expressed his regret in an interview on Irish TV network RTE following Russia's full-scale invasion.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BILL CLINTON: I feel terrible about it because I got them to agree to give up their nuclear weapons, and none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons.
BEARDSLEY: Back at the museum, Fil takes us along an underground corridor the length of two football fields before opening a 2,000-pound door, which leads to a tiny elevator. Our team crams in with him...
FIL: (Through interpreter) Look at this. How are you feeling?
BEARDSLEY: Oh, my god. I'm kind of freaked out.
...And descends 150 feet underground.
It smells weird down here. Oh, nice bunks.
FIL: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: To a tiny living space with three slab single bunks, a hot plate and a samovar.
Oh, boy.
A wall ladder leads to the launch room above.
FIL: (Through interpreter) So, Eleanor, sit down, please.
BEARDSLEY: Fil flips a switch to light up the decrepit control board and sits us in the top commander seats, which are bolted to the floor and have harnesses to strap you in.
FIL: (Speaking Ukrainian).
Attention.
(Through interpreter) Start.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUZZER)
BEARDSLEY: We each press a button while turning a key. It takes two people and two gestures to launch the missiles.
(SOUNDBITE OF MISSILES LAUNCHING)
BEARDSLEY: On a screen above, we watch a simulation of the ballistic missiles rise from their silos and launch in a ball of fire. Despite Russia's recent threats, Fil says he doesn't believe President Putin would dare use a nuclear weapon. They're too unpredictable, he says, and Putin would face huge consequences.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FIL: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: In the launch room, a view from space shows mushroom clouds blossoming across the planet, signaling the end of the world. Fil says while he's thankful it never came to this, he still regrets that Ukraine gave up its nuclear deterrence.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Pobuzke, Ukraine.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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