DavidPawley said:

Ukraine ought to have given up her nuclear capability by expending it on Moscow.

First, Ukraine never had any control over nuclear weapons positioned there, they all were controlled from Moscow. So, literally, they never held the "red button". Same as Germans do not have any control over American nuclear weapons stationed there.

Second, had they kept the useless nukes, they'd sold most of the to the highest bidder by the 2010 the latest, same way they did with remaining cruise missiles and lots of missile tech from their Yuzhnoe design bureau. So I guess in that case US or EU or both would have steamrolled it by that time as well.

DavidPawley said:

by returning fire at invading Russian troops.

So, the air strike against the administrative building in the center of Lugansk on June 2nd, 2014, which killed 8 and wounded 28 civilians, was "returning fire on Russian troops"?

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-unspun-luhansk-blast/25410384.html

DavidPawley said:

Oh yeah, which airliners?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812

The accident resulted from combat-missile launches during joint Ukrainian-Russian military air-defence exercises.^[3] The exercises were held at the Russian-controlled training ground of the 31st Russian Black Sea Fleet Research center on Cape Opuk near the city of Kerch in Crimea. Ukraine eventually admitted that it might have caused the crash, probably by an errant S-200 missile fired by its armed forces.^[4] Ukraine paid $15 million to surviving family members of the 78 victims ($200,000 per victim).^[5][6]
 

Russian officials dismissed the American claim as "unworthy of attention,"^[16] and Russian president Vladimir Putin told the press the next day that "the weapons used in those exercises had such characteristics that make it impossible for them to reach the air corridor through which the plane was moving."^[16]

^{So what was your point again? That UKR paid compensation and RUS lied about the events?}

^{Patton was right.}

“Ukraine never had any control over nuclear weapons positioned there, they all were controlled from Moscow.”
 

So that means that the security guarantee by Russia in exchange for surrendering the nukes was not legitimate? Oh, okay then, the Russians are allowed to invade then, see, they aren’t breaking any promises!

“the air strike against the administrative building in the center of Lugansk on June 2nd, 2014, which killed 8 and wounded 28 civilians, was "returning fire on Russian troops"?”

Yes.

My point was that UKR denied (and still officially denies) its guilt and paid compensations only after significant pressure from Israel

They also actively denied that it was their own errant SA missile that killed two unlucky Polish farmers several days ago, despite the obvious facts

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63656664

Pathetic attempt at moral equivalence with your constant whataboutism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17

is not remotely comparable to 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17)^[a] was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian forces^[4] on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.^[5] Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost when it was about 50 km (31 mi) from the Ukraine–Russia border, and wreckage from the aircraft fell near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km (25 mi) from the border.^[6] The shoot-down occurred during the war in Donbas over territory controlled by Russian separatist forces.^[7]

The responsibility for investigation was delegated to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), who in 2016 reported that the airliner had been downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine.^[3][8] The JIT found that the Buk originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation^[9]

For Libya, it helped a lot of Europe was even more gung-ho to intervene than we were.

Alright gang, let's call a pause to the politicking, and return to weapons discussion. 

Ukraine likely to receive Ground Launched SDB with 150km range:

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/100-mile-strike-weapon-weighed-ukraine-arms-makers-wrestle-with-demand-sources-2022-11-28/

Nice discussion of Gepard in Ukraine:

Hopefully Germany or another country will create a modernized version using AHEAD/Proximity airburst and modern digital interface / updated radar / IRST sensors.