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Reuters | Blast From The Past: Inside Ukraine's Last Nuclear Missile Base
A perfectly preserved nuclear launch site in the Ukrainian countryside.
Museum entrance.
Via photographs, tour guide Elena Smerichevskaya takes you inside a vestige from the Cold War, the last surviving Soviet nuclear missile base in Ukraine that was saved from total destruction and is now a museum. As a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances (along with the United States and the Russian Federation), Ukraine gave up her nuclear arsenal (3rd largest in the world) of 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 nuclear warheads on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine destroyed/transferred these weapons in exchange for the security of Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. Thr Russian Federation violated this treaty in 2014 with the invasions of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
The city of Pervomaysk (70,000) lies in Mykolaiv oblast about 300 km south of Kyiv. This is where the museum base above is located. The 46th Rocket Division of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces was based here during the Cold War. The missile base was a classified state secret and even today residents refrain from talking about it. Another missile museum (open air) is in the town of Pobuzke (15,000) which lies on the border of the Kirovohrad and Mykolayiv oblasts in south-central Ukraine. For a couple hundred hryvnia (~$7) you can also tool around in a Soviet tank for about ten minutes. I visited both museums when I lived in Ukraine.
A perfectly preserved nuclear launch site in the Ukrainian countryside.
Museum entrance.
Via photographs, tour guide Elena Smerichevskaya takes you inside a vestige from the Cold War, the last surviving Soviet nuclear missile base in Ukraine that was saved from total destruction and is now a museum. As a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances (along with the United States and the Russian Federation), Ukraine gave up her nuclear arsenal (3rd largest in the world) of 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 nuclear warheads on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine destroyed/transferred these weapons in exchange for the security of Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. Thr Russian Federation violated this treaty in 2014 with the invasions of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
The city of Pervomaysk (70,000) lies in Mykolaiv oblast about 300 km south of Kyiv. This is where the museum base above is located. The 46th Rocket Division of the 43rd Rocket Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces was based here during the Cold War. The missile base was a classified state secret and even today residents refrain from talking about it. Another missile museum (open air) is in the town of Pobuzke (15,000) which lies on the border of the Kirovohrad and Mykolayiv oblasts in south-central Ukraine. For a couple hundred hryvnia (~$7) you can also tool around in a Soviet tank for about ten minutes. I visited both museums when I lived in Ukraine.