Kyiv Denies Report Claiming It Could Develop Nuclear Weapons Amid Potential US Support Cuts

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine refuted a recent article by The Times, which suggested that Ukraine could potentially develop nuclear weapons if US military aid were reduced.

The British newspaper claimed that Ukraine could quickly build a basic nuclear device similar to the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, based on a report prepared for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

 “Ukraine is committed to the NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons]… we do not possess, develop, or intend to acquire nuclear weapons. Ukraine works closely with the IAEA and is fully transparent to its monitoring, which rules out the use of nuclear materials for military purposes,” Heorhiy Tykhy, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted to social media on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

The Times article referenced a report from the Center for Army Research, Conversion, and Disarmament, a prominent Ukrainian defense think tank. The report suggested that, if necessary, Ukraine could create a limited-yield nuclear device within months.

In May of 1992, Russia, the US, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine signed the Lisbon Protocol committing those countries to adhere to the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states as soon as possible.

However, the terms for transferring the nuclear warheads were not agreed upon immediately, and some Ukrainian officials and parliamentarians discussed the idea of retaining some of the modern Ukrainian-built missiles and older Soviet-built warheads as a result.

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The announcement comes with the promise of further support and follows criticism within Australia of the government’s slowness to act.

But in 1993, both Kyiv and Moscow signed a series of bilateral agreements giving up Ukrainian claims to the nuclear weapons and the Soviet-controlled Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, in return for $2.5 billion of gas and oil debt cancellation and the understanding that Moscow would never invade Ukraine as a result.

Recent events would suggest that the Kremlin will not adhere to such treaties in the future.