Way Forward (Should Ukraine work on Nuke Arsenals)-
1. Ukraine should not repeat the mistake of being aligned with one side especially when the state shares its border with one of the superpowers having a president who can't be deterred to use muscle in an easy way. Ukraine simply can not afford to be churned amidst the tussle of East and West. A BALANCING ATTITUDE towards a Sustainable Global Regime in the interest of National interest should be practised by Ukraine.
2. Ukraine is still quite good at defence tech research and exports the whole or partial machinery around the world (related to servicing jets specifically), the state may and should focus more on their strength and economic uprise with the allies they are left with, they must not rise as a threat to any side but pose a reflection of a peaceful country who favours balancing attitude among the leading economies. While Ukraine can funnel investments in the defence sector and strengthen their border securities, maritime, aerial layers, they can follow a few examples like "Operation Smiling Buddha 1974" & "Operation Shakti 1998", here the one and the foremost aim for Nuclear research could be for peaceful purposes primarily, any aggressive step shouldn't be shown explicitly.
3. Along with strengthening defence and leakproof national information system, Ukraine has to wait for the policy shift/political regime shift in the Russian administration, they should wait for a suitable time, until then they should work on their political & soft power through investing more in research, tech education and other important areas which ensures their economic safety (Economic policies and trading with the west is where they have the chance to beat Russians, that's the whole point of taking advantage of the sanctions imposed on your enemy state!)
Conclusion- The world order is shifting to more rigorous thinking and the developing nations have to be more proactively engaged in balanced decision making in the favour of peace and prosperity instead of looking at world diplomacy as a black and white picture, apart from that "SELF RELIANCE" is the need of the hour. May people from both the sides be safe and prosperous.
In reference to the question asked in Prashant Dhawan Sir's lecture on 22/02/2022 when Russia declared Luhansk & Donetsk as independent regions and promised to enter both the states militarily.