I could be mistaken, but I do believe some European militaries did experiment with bullets with fins for smooth bore muskets in the 18th century. I think something similar is still in use with smooth bore shotguns.
There is a natural nuclear reactor in Africa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor
Perhaps some geologists could discover it sooner, studying it would provide knowledge for building a manmade one.
First one? You mean a few slivers of independent territory during the RCW? There was no unified Ukraine at the time, it was just a few warlords. During the Russian Civil War I mean.
At the time they were pushing for privatization hard. It was only retroactively that western economists changed their tune saying that they were not that big on privatization. As the saying goes " Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan".