US reveals stance on nuclear-armed Ukraine

 

Washington has said it does not plan to ship nuclear weapons to Kiev, insisting Ukraine does not want them either

FILE PHOTO: Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, left, and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in the United Nations Security Council, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. © AP Photo/Richard Drew

Neither Washington nor its allies harbor any intention to arm Ukraine with nuclear weapons, the US envoy to the UN has claimed at an emergency meeting of the Security Council, which was convened after Moscow recognized two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. The ambassador argued that Kiev is not seeking to arm itself with nukes either, despite a recent statement by the Ukrainian president that his country might give up its decades-old pledge to be a non-nuclear state.

“The US and our allies have no intention of supplying nuclear weapons to Ukraine, and Ukraine doesn't want them,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday.

The prospect of a nuclear-armed Ukraine has sparked concerns in Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seemingly raised such a possibility as recently as last week. Speaking at the Munich security conference on Saturday, Zelensky said he requested talks on the implementation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that saw Ukraine give up its atomic weapons in exchange for security guarantees. Arguing that Kiev has ended up with “neither weapons, nor security,” Zelensky said he would put the memorandum “under question” if his request to review the terms of the agreement is not met.

Speaking at a special meeting of Russia’s Security Council that immediately preceded the recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Kiev was capable of designing tactical nuclear weapons, and even would enjoy a head start over Iran and North Korea.

READ MORE: Ukraine more capable of obtaining nuclear weapons than Iran – Moscow

In her speech at the UN, Thomas-Greenfield also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making a claim to former territories of the Russian Empire, including to “all of Ukraine,” as well as Finland, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, three Baltic states and “parts of Poland and Turkey.” 

In his extended address to the nation on Monday, Putin lamented the decision the Bolshevik government of Russia made when it signed the “humiliating” 1918 peace treaty with Germany, under which Russia ceded huge swathes of territory, relinquishing all territorial claims in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, most of Belarus and Ukraine, among others. However, the Russian president did not call for the return of the Russian Empire of one hundred years ago, saying that: “Of course, the events of the past cannot be changed, but we must at least speak about them directly and honestly, without any reservations and without any political overtones.”'

https://www.rt.com/russia/550193-nuclear-weapons-supply-ukraine/