President Vladimir Putin said this Thursday (28) that Russia would use all the weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kiev acquired nuclear weapons.
The New York Times reported last week that some Western officials, on condition of anonymity, suggested that US President Joe Biden could give nuclear weapons to Ukraine before leaving office.
“If the country we are essentially at war with now becomes a nuclear power, what will we do? In this case, we will use all, I want to emphasize this, precisely all means of destruction available to Russia. All. We won’t allow it. We will be watching their every move,” he said.
“If someone transferred something officially, it would mean a violation of all the non-proliferation commitments they made,” Putin said.
Putin also said that it was virtually impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be capable of making some kind of “dirty bomb” – a conventional bomb mixed with radioactive material to spread contamination.
In that case, Russia would respond appropriately, he said.
Russia has repeatedly said, without providing evidence, that Ukraine could use such a device.
after its collapse in 1991, but handed them over under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly complained that the move left his country without security, citing it as a reason for the country to be admitted to NATO — something Moscow strongly opposes.
