Moscow says Kiev cannot build nuclear weapons without help from the West
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned countries that are financing Ukraine.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that Ukraine is not capable of developing nuclear weapons on its own and can only achieve this if it receives assistance from the West.
Speaking at a press conference on December 25, Ms. Zakharova referred to statements by Western officials and media about Kiev having nuclear deterrence capabilities.
“The Kiev regime cannot create nuclear weapons on its own in just a few weeks. This is a fact,” Zakharova said, stressing that the only way for Ukraine to achieve this is to “receive important components from outside, from other countries.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman added: Ukraine should “focus on solving the heating season instead of seeking nuclear weapons.”
The current government in Kiev has repeatedly stated that Ukraine “gave up” its nuclear weapons in 1994 in exchange for security guarantees from both Russia and the United States. President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Moscow of violating the “Budapest Memorandum” and argued that Kiev therefore has the right to possess nuclear weapons.
Russia has pointed out that Ukraine never possessed nuclear weapons in the first place. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the memorandum concerns Soviet assets that legally belong to Moscow, while it was the US that broke the 1994 agreement by sponsoring the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014.
In early October, the German newspaper Bild, citing an unnamed official in the arms procurement sector, reported that Ukraine was ready to produce nuclear weapons.
“We have the material, we have the knowledge. If the order is given, we are just weeks away from having the first bomb,” the official was quoted as saying earlier this year, adding that the West should “think less about Russia’s red lines and more about our red lines.”
However, Kiev quickly denied Bild's content, calling it "nonsense" and claiming that the pro-Ukrainian newspaper was actually publishing "Russian propaganda".
Last month, the Washington Post quoted unnamed US officials speculating that the White House “might allow Ukraine to regain possession of nuclear weapons.” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has officially denied this information.
