Russia says it would be ‘insane’ for West to give Ukraine nuclear weapons

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.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said it was in the interests of all responsible governments to ensure that such a scenario, which she called “suicidal,” did not unfold.

“We regard this as insanity,” Zakharova told reporters when asked about the matter.

“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, which she described 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 has warned that Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing 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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly complained that the move left his country without security which is one of the reasons he argues it should be admitted to the Nato military alliance, something Moscow opposes.