Russia warns West against arming Ukraine with nukes

Moscow says such a 'suicidal' step will be 'absolute insanity'

MOSCOW:

The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that an idea reportedly being floated in the West that Washington should give Ukraine nuclear weapons was "insane" and that preventing such a scenario was one of the reasons why Moscow went into Ukraine.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office. "We regard this as insanity," Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said.

Zakharova said it was in the interests of all responsible governments to ensure that such a "suicidal" scenario did not unfold. "This is absolute insanity being foisted upon a certain part of the political establishment in Ukraine by Westerners."

She accused Kyiv of using the issue as propaganda to try to squeeze more aid out of the West. "Irresponsible actions" by Ukraine and its Western backers could bring the world to "the brink of catastrophe", she warned.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons was "absolutely irresponsible, while senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow could provide grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.