Ukraine Can Create Its Own Nukes, Former Envoy to NATO Claims

07:42 GMT, 9 December 2018

CC0 / NNSA / Nevada Site Office / The BADGER explosion

On December 5, 1994, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, the US and the UK signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, which obliged Kiev to give up nuclear weapons. It was followed by the process of Ukraine entering Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Sputnik

Kiev has the intellectual, organizational and financial capacity to develop and produce its own nuclear weapons, according to Peter Garashchuk, former Ukrainian envoy to NATO.

In an interview with Ukraine's Obozrevatel TV, Garashchuk claimed that apart from creating atomic bombs, Kiev is also capable of developing full-fledged nuclear warheads for missiles.

He also argued that to date, the only plant for the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) is located in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk, and that "neither the US nor Russia nor China can create an analogue of the Satan-class ICBM".

Garashchuk claimed that when it comes to creating nuclear weapons, Kiev should not be afraid of international sanctions.

Germany Skeptical About US Plans to Provide Ukraine With Lethal Arms

3 January 2018, 21:14 GMT

Ukraine agreed to give up nuclear weapons and join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in December 1994, when its leaders along with those from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, the US and the UK signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signalled his readiness to make amendments to the country's constitution so that the document could legalize Kiev's push to join the EU and NATO.