The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has officially denied information published in the German newspaper BILD about the country’s alleged plans to develop weapons of mass destruction. In its statement, the MFA stressed Ukraine’s compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and recalled that it had given up its nuclear arsenal after gaining independence from the USSR.
This statement was made after a BILD journalist, citing an anonymous source in the Ukrainian government, reported that Ukraine was allegedly ready to start developing nuclear weapons to defend itself against Russia. The rumours came on the same day that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that during a meeting with Donald Trump in New York, he had hinted that Ukraine would be forced to develop nuclear weapons if it did not become a NATO member.
Zelenskyy clarified that he does not intend to develop nuclear weapons, recalling the Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine was promised territorial integrity in exchange for giving up its nuclear arsenal. He stressed, however, that the only effective defence for Ukraine is to join NATO.
