"I think from the United Nations side, we have been saying that [it is] sometimes [an] inaccurate narrative that if Ukraine kept its nuclear arsenals, the whole thing [conflict] would not have happened. It is a dangerous narrative and we want to counter that," Nakamitsu said during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference.
Nakamitsu underscored that the only way to eliminate the risk of a nuclear conflict is to completely abandon this type of weapon, but added that such a development will not happen overnight.
Kiev signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in 1994, giving up the world's third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council pledged to provide assistance to Ukraine if the country is under threat of nuclear attack by other states.