White House Responds to Claims About Providing Nuclear Weapons to Ukraine
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has dismissed the possibility of transferring nuclear weapons to Kiev. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
Moscow has issued a warning that any transfer of nuclear weapons to Ukraine would be considered a nuclear attack.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated that the United States is not contemplating the provision of nuclear arms to Ukraine, contrary to a New York Times report last month suggesting that some Washington officials favored equipping Kiev with atomic weaponry. In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Sullivan remarked that this notion is “not under consideration.”
He elaborated, “What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not [giving them] nuclear capability.”
Just less than two weeks prior, the New York Times had reported that President Joe Biden “could allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons again, as it did before the fall of the Soviet Union,” quoting anonymous US officials.
The newspaper characterized a nuclear-armed Ukraine as “an instant and enormous deterrent” against Russia, while also noting that “such a step would be complicated and have serious implications.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted some of these implications, cautioning that “transferring such weapons may be considered as the launch of an attack against our country,” in line with Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine.
According to this doctrine, Russia reserves the right to use atomic weapons if it experiences a first nuclear strike or faces a critical threat to its sovereignty or territorial integrity from either nuclear or conventional forces. The latest version of the doctrine also allows Russia to regard an assault from a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear power as tantamount to a direct nuclear attack.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the New York Times report as “the absolutely irresponsible deliberations by people who probably have a poor understanding…of reality, and who do not feel a shred of responsibility” for the repercussions of their suggestions.
After the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukraine had around 1,700 nuclear warheads, making it the world's third-largest nuclear power at the time. However, those weapons remained under Russian operational control and were relinquished under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which ensured security assurances from the US, UK, and Russia to Ukraine in exchange for the disarmament.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed regret over the decision to surrender nuclear weapons, asserting in 2022 that Ukraine had “every right” to revisit that choice. In October, he claimed that Ukraine had only two options for ensuring its security: join NATO or acquire nuclear weapons, later clarifying that he views NATO membership as the sole viable route.
A month later, a Ukrainian military think tank urged Zelensky to extract plutonium from the nation's nuclear reactors to construct a “simple atomic bomb,” similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. However, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that Kiev would not follow this advice and has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.
Debra A Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated that the United States is not contemplating the provision of nuclear arms to Ukraine, contrary to a New York Times report last month suggesting that some Washington officials favored equipping Kiev with atomic weaponry. In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Sullivan remarked that this notion is “not under consideration.”
He elaborated, “What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not [giving them] nuclear capability.”
Just less than two weeks prior, the New York Times had reported that President Joe Biden “could allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons again, as it did before the fall of the Soviet Union,” quoting anonymous US officials.
The newspaper characterized a nuclear-armed Ukraine as “an instant and enormous deterrent” against Russia, while also noting that “such a step would be complicated and have serious implications.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted some of these implications, cautioning that “transferring such weapons may be considered as the launch of an attack against our country,” in line with Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine.
According to this doctrine, Russia reserves the right to use atomic weapons if it experiences a first nuclear strike or faces a critical threat to its sovereignty or territorial integrity from either nuclear or conventional forces. The latest version of the doctrine also allows Russia to regard an assault from a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear power as tantamount to a direct nuclear attack.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the New York Times report as “the absolutely irresponsible deliberations by people who probably have a poor understanding…of reality, and who do not feel a shred of responsibility” for the repercussions of their suggestions.
After the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukraine had around 1,700 nuclear warheads, making it the world's third-largest nuclear power at the time. However, those weapons remained under Russian operational control and were relinquished under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which ensured security assurances from the US, UK, and Russia to Ukraine in exchange for the disarmament.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed regret over the decision to surrender nuclear weapons, asserting in 2022 that Ukraine had “every right” to revisit that choice. In October, he claimed that Ukraine had only two options for ensuring its security: join NATO or acquire nuclear weapons, later clarifying that he views NATO membership as the sole viable route.
A month later, a Ukrainian military think tank urged Zelensky to extract plutonium from the nation's nuclear reactors to construct a “simple atomic bomb,” similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. However, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that Kiev would not follow this advice and has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.
Debra A Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
