The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry (MFA) has poured cold water over reports that the country is planning on building weapons of mass destruction.
Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for the ministry, said in a statement issued Thursday that the MFA refutes a recent report from the German tabloid BILD that claimed Kyiv was closing in on plans to build a nuclear bomb. The allegations came out in a report from BILD published earlier in the day, and the outlet cited an unnamed senior Ukrainian official “specializing in weapons procurement.”
Tykhyi emphasized in his statement that Ukraine “remains a committed party” to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Kyiv agreed to dismantle its nuclear stockpile in exchange for security assurances from the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia.
He added that Ukraine, “which has made the greatest contribution in history to international peace, security and nuclear non-proliferation, is now facing nuclear blackmail from the terrorist state of Russia.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said he would consider using nuclear weapons amid his invasion of Ukraine if other countries interfered in the war.
“Moscow not only resorts to irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric on the topic of weapons of mass destruction, but also creates unacceptable threats to nuclear facilities on the territory of Ukraine…We call on the international community to increase pressure on Moscow to prevent the realization of its aggressive plans,” Tykhyi said.
Ukraine’s Presidential Communications Advisor Dmytro Lytvyn also dismissed BILD’s report in a statement to Interfax Ukraine, telling the outlet, “Yes, this is not the first time that Bild has spread something that has no connection to reality, but plays into the hands of Russian propaganda.”
Newsweek reached out to Russia’s foreign ministry via email on Thursday for comment.
The MFA’s statement comes the same day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to give an ultimatum to the NATO alliance, saying at the European Council summit in Brussels that he told former President Donald Trump that Kyiv would either join “some king of alliance” or be “forced to pursue nuclear weapons.”
Zelensky walked back his comments during a press conference later in the day with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, saying Thursday that Ukraine is not “building nuclear weapons.”
“What I meant is that today, there is no stronger security guarantee for us besides NATO membership,” Zelensky added, according to Politico’s report on the matter.
NATO has said that it’s committed to Ukraine’s future in the alliance, although Rutte refrained from endorsing Ukraine’s request for an “accelerated” membership application during the press conference Thursday.
Zelensky also announced his long-awaited “victory plan” this week, which outlines Kyiv’s goals of joining NATO and securing further support from its Western allies in order to reach an end to its war with Russia. While presenting the plan to Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday, Zelensky said that the plan could finish the war by next year.
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