Kremlin slams ‘irresponsible’ Ukraine nuclear talk
The idea of providing Ukraine with nuclear weapons comes from the “extremist flank” of Kiev’s Western backers, who have lost touch with reality, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
The New York Times reported last week that EU and American officials have suggested that outgoing US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear arms as a “security guarantee.” “That would be an instant and enormous deterrent,” the paper claimed, in an article bylined by four of its reporters, but citing anonymous sources, in which it acknowledged that such a move would be “complicated and have serious implications.”
Commenting on the report on Tuesday, Peskov said: “You know, even the most provocative line aimed at escalating tensions has a fringe extremist flank. This idea probably comes from this fringe extremist flank.”
The Russian presidential spokesman described the suggestion of transferring nuclear weapons to Ukraine as “absolutely irresponsible deliberations by people, who probably have a poor understanding… of reality, and who do not feel a shred of responsibility” for the consequences of their proposals.
Peskov also noted that “all of these statements are anonymous.”
Moscow is concerned that the “outgoing administration in Washington continues to pursue... further escalation,” the spokesperson added.
US lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has also slammed the idea of providing Kiev with nuclear weapons, arguing that it would be “insane and completely unconstitutional, possibly an act of treason.”
In a post on X on Tuesday, the representative for Georgia wondered whether the Biden administration is “trying to start a nuclear war and use it as the reason to stop the transfer of power to [President-elect Donald] Trump.”
Last week, Russia formally updated its nuclear doctrine, allowing for a nuclear response to a conventional attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a power that possesses weapons of mass destruction.
Moscow also fired its new Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile against a Ukrainian military industrial facility in response to Kiev’s use of US- and UK-made long-range weapons for attacks on internationally recognized Russian territory. Kiev’s strikes came after it received the greenlight from Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the attacks deep into Russia have moved the Ukraine conflict to a global level, as Kiev could not have carried them out without the assistance of NATO states.
“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities,” Putin warned.
