 "After Zelenskyy's nuclear arms remarks, Putin says Ukraine's 'dangerous provocation' will be met with equal reaction")
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s suggestion that Kyiv would seek nuclear weapons if it could not join Nato was a “dangerous provocation”.
“This is a dangerous provocation. Any step in this direction will be met with a corresponding reaction,” AFP quoted Putin as saying at a meeting with journalists from the BRICS group of emerging economies.
Zelenskyy on Thursday appeared to suggest Ukraine could seek nuclear weapons unless it is given Nato membership.
The Ukrainian president told European Union leaders during a speech in Brussels that Kyiv needed a strong deterrent against Russia.
“Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, which will serve as protection, or it must be part of some kind of alliance. Apart from Nato, we do not know of such an effective alliance,” Zelenskyy said.
He added that Donald Trump agreed that it was a “fair argument” for Ukraine to seek atomic weaponry when the two leaders spoke in the United States.
Ukraine inherited the world’s third biggest nuclear arsenal, estimated at several thousand nuclear warheads, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 but, in a gesture of goodwill, surrendered them three years later.
Although Russia has threatened to fire a nuclear missile at Ukraine, this is the first time that Zelensky has discussed building similar capabilities.
He said that it had been a mistake for Ukraine to give up its nuclear missiles in 1994 after receiving security guarantees from Russia, Britain and the US, a view shared by most Ukrainians.
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More Shorts“Who gave up their nuclear weapons? All of them. Only Ukraine, he said. “Who is fighting today? Ukraine.”
After a lot of hue and cry over his comments, the Ukraine President urged journalists not to “distort the meaning” of his words.
During a joint press conference with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels, Zelenskyy emphasised that Ukraine is not planning to develop its own nuclear weapons and urged not to seek hidden meanings in his statements.
“We have never said that we are preparing to create nuclear weapons. I mentioned that when the Budapest Memorandum was signed, Ukraine relinquished its nuclear arsenal, and Russia, China, and the United States assured us that we would receive guarantees of security, territorial integrity and sovereignty. That is what I said. It means we relinquished our nuclear weapons. And those who were our partners at the time were supposed to provide us with security guarantees,” the President was quoted as saying.
He said despite the commitments made by the signatory states of the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine has not received real protection when Putin began to occupy Ukrainian territories.
“Never in all these years, during the revolution, during the last ten years… This means that the Budapest Memorandum is not a good protection for us, it is not a real umbrella. Therefore, we have no alternative but NATO. That is our signal. But we are not developing nuclear weapons. Please do not change the meaning of the messages. Ukraine will be in NATO, and until then, we will do everything necessary for Ukraine to have what it needs to win,” Zelenskyy added.
With inputs from agencies
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