Moscow has warned that providing such weapons to Kyiv would be considered a nuclear attack.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated the US isn’t considering supplying Ukraine with nuclear weapons, following a New York Times report suggesting some Washington officials favored arming Kyiv with atomic weapons. Sullivan told ABC News on Sunday that this option is “not under consideration,” explaining that the US is focusing on providing Ukraine with conventional capabilities for self-defense against Russia, not nuclear arms.
Two weeks prior, the New York Times, citing anonymous US officials, reported that President Biden might permit Ukraine to reacquire nuclear weapons, as it possessed before the Soviet Union’s collapse.
The newspaper described a nuclear-armed Ukraine as a potent deterrent against Russia, acknowledging the complexity and serious implications of such a move.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted potential consequences, warning that transferring such weapons could be viewed as an attack on Russia, aligning with Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine. This doctrine permits the use of nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear first strike, or if Russia’s sovereignty or territorial integrity is critically threatened by nuclear or conventional means. It also classifies attacks by non-nuclear states backed by nuclear powers as equivalent to direct nuclear aggression.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report as “absolutely irresponsible deliberations” by individuals lacking understanding and responsibility for the ramifications of their suggestions.
Ukraine possessed around 1,700 nuclear warheads after the Soviet Union’s collapse, technically making it the world’s third-largest nuclear power. However, these weapons were under Russia’s operational control and surrendered under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, an agreement where the US, UK, and Russia offered security assurances to Kyiv in exchange for disarmament.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky regretted Ukraine’s surrender of its nuclear arsenal, stating in 2022 that Kyiv had the right to reverse this decision. He initially proposed two options for security: NATO membership or acquiring nuclear weapons, later emphasizing NATO membership as his sole choice.
A month later, a Ukrainian military think tank urged Zelensky to seize nuclear reactor materials to build a simple atomic bomb, similar to the one used on Nagasaki. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected this proposal, clarifying that Ukraine does not intend to acquire nuclear weapons.