President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv were to acquire nuclear arms.
The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested U.S. President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.
Russia Watching
“If the country which we are essentially at war with now becomes a nuclear power, what do we do? In this case, we will use all, I want to emphasize this, precisely all means of destruction available to Russia. Everything: we will not allow it. We’ll be watching their every move”, Putin said during a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“If officially someone were to transfer something, then that would mean a violation of all the non-proliferation commitments they have made,” Putin said.
Putin also said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of “dirty bomb”, a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material in order to spread contamination. In that case, Russia would respond appropriately, he said.
Ukraine’s Nuclear Weapons
Russia has repeatedly said, without providing evidence, that Ukraine might use such a device.
Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly complained that the move left his country without security. He cited this as a reason it should be admitted to NATO – something Moscow strongly opposes.
Russia’s Warning
Russia may use its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile to attack “decision-making centres” in Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s firing of Western missiles at Russian territory, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
Russia has not so far struck Ukrainian government ministries, parliament or the president’s office in the course of the 33-month war.
Kyiv is heavily protected by air defences, but Putin says the Oreshnik, which Russia fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week, is incapable of being intercepted – a claim greeted with scepticism by Western experts.
(with inputs for Reuters)
