Strategic Missile Forces Museum, Ukraine

The actual “launch” room of the USSR. It”s located 45 meters (135 feet) underground in a round 3.3 meter (12 foot) in diameter and 125 ton silo. We got to visit the actual control room were a nuclear weapon would have been launch against “The West” during the 1980’s.

The button I’m touching would have start the launch! But there’s a series of other security checks also required.

The silo consists of eleven compartments which house everything needed to keep the Unified Command Post running autonomously for up to 45 days in case of a nuclear war.

After the dissolution of the USSR, Ukraine held about one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at the time. After independence in 1991, Ukraine agreed to destroy the weapons.