Moscow warns of ‘direct conflict’ between nuclear powers
Any attempt to provide Ukraine with nuclear capabilities would be met with a “resolute response” from Russia and risks a “direct military conflict between nuclear powers,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
Zakharova made the remarks on Tuesday, commenting on claims made by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) earlier in the day. It alleged that London and Paris have been considering ways to equip Ukraine with nuclear capabilities, either by providing it with components to build dirty bombs or supplying it with warheads from their own stocks.
The potential “covert transfer of relevant European-made components, equipment, and technologies to Ukraine” comes along with preparations for an information campaign to portray the nuclear device as domestically developed in Ukraine.
The alleged intentions of Paris and London bear grave risks for global security and would “inevitably be met with a resolute response” from Russia, Zakharova said in a statement.
“We have repeatedly stated that any attempts to revisit Ukraine’s non-nuclear status, let alone to enable the deeply anti-Russian Kiev regime to obtain nuclear weapons, are categorically unacceptable,” she said. “We once again warn of the risks of direct military conflict between nuclear powers – and, consequently, of its potentially catastrophic consequences.”
The allegations raised by the SVR “fall upon fertile ground,” Zakharova said, citing repeated belligerent remarks by the Ukrainian leadership.
“Evidence of Kiev’s nuclear ambitions is plentiful. One need only recall Vladimir Zelensky’s remarks at the 2022 Munich Security Conference, in which he expressed readiness to reconsider Ukraine’s non-nuclear status, as well as his subsequent, equally provocative statements on the matter,” she stated.
The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly claimed that it gave up its nuclear arsenal in the early 1990s in exchange for security guarantees. In reality, the arsenal was mere leftovers of the Soviet-era nuclear stockpile, which ended up in Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. The nuclear weapons in question remained under the control of Russia, which is the only legal successor of the Soviet Union.
