This is a dangerous provocation. At a meeting with journalists from the BRICS group of emerging economies, Putin said that any step in this direction would be met with corresponding reactions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s suggestion that Kyiv would seek nuclear weapons if it couldn’t 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.
During a Brussels speech, the Ukrainian president told European Union leaders 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. We do not know of such an effective alliance apart from NATO,” 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.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine inherited the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, estimated at several thousand nuclear warheads. Still, three years later, it surrendered them as a gesture of goodwill.
While Russia has threatened to fire a nuclear missile at Ukraine, this is the first time that Zelensky has discussed building similar capabilities.
It was a mistake for Ukraine to give up its nuclear missiles back in 1994 when Russia, Britain, and the US gave it security guarantees. Most Ukrainians share this view.
“Who gives up their nuclear weapons? All of them. Only Ukraine, he said. Who is fighting today? Ukraine.
