Why Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons -- and what that means in an invasion by Russia

[Be The Light]

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/21/1082124528/ukraine-russia-putin-invasion

[Igel]

1. Putin has a long history of ignoring such "guarantees" and "assurances."

Then again, so does the US.

If Congress ratifies a treaty that the President signed, who's going to enforce it against Congress and the President in case of violation?

And what's to stop the total amount of "aid" being a strongly worded request for discussions and diplomacy?

Right. An unenforceable agreement isn't worth much unless it's in the interests of the part that would be enforcing it to actually go to the mat over it. The only thing you lose is your reputation--and *that* might have repercussions. Then again, it might not--but making it the topic of that kind of outcome-based debate immediately renders the actual guarantees meaningless--in the absence of good relations and no such guarantee we'd have the exact same debate.

(Yeah, I'm less manic-depressive than cynical-hopeful. I'm in a "cynical" phase right now.)