October 19, 2024
Why Zelensky wishes to get NW?
On October 18, 2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin in a clear-cut strong public statement said that Moscow would never allow Kiev to acquire nuclear weapons (NW), and any attempt to do this would be met with an appropriate Russian reaction. It was his first response to ex-Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky’s suggestion that Ukraine would need NW, should it not be granted NATO membership.
After promoting his ‘victory plan’ for the conflict with Russia to European officials, Zelensky disclosed on October 17 that speaking to Donald Trump while visiting the USA last month he told him: “What is the way out for us?’ Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and they will serve as protection, or we need to be in some kind of an alliance. We don’t know any effective alliances except NATO”.
A-bomb on short notice
Zelensky’s “victory-plan” contains a provision to invade and capture Moscow and Leningrad plus two other Russian Central Regions. It reminds Hitler’s “Barbarossa Blitzkrieg” war plan hammered out by Nazi Germany before it started a massive aggression against the USSR in June 1941. The invasion force that time included 183 German divisions and 13 brigades, all of which were destroyed later.
Zelensky added that Kiev stands ready to produce an A-bomb on short notice, saying that the nuclear talk was only meant to imply there was no alternative for Ukraine to join the US-led nuclear transatlantic alliance.
Moscow’s response
Commenting on such a statement on October 18 at a press conference for media from BRICS countries in Moscow Putin said that Zelensky’s announcement was “another dangerous provocation.”
“I can say this: Russia will not allow such a thing under any circumstances”, the Russian President underscored.
Ukraine’s political leadership has repeatedly expressed a desire for NW, “even before the crisis turned hot,” Putin noted.
E.g., in February 2022, in a speech at the International Security Conference in Munich weeks before the escalation of the Ukrainian aggression against Donbass, Zelensky expressed regret at the decision to become a nuclear-free nation, suggesting that his country had “every right” to reverse it. By the mid 1990s Ukraine possessed both Soviet strategic/tactical NW and their means of delivery, but all of them had been totally returned to Russia.
What if Kiev is supplied with NW?
Asked whether another country, such as the UK, could secretly provide Ukraine with NW, the Russian leader said that it would be “impossible to hide,” and that Moscow is “capable of tracking down any movement in this direction.”
Last month, Putin announced a series of changes to Russia’s nuclear strategy, expanding the criteria for the use of the strategic nuclear deterrent. The move came as Kiev was requesting that NATO countries lift the restrictions on the use of foreign-supplied longer-range weapons for strikes deep inside continental Russia. The amended document also extended Russia’s nuclear umbrella to Belarus.
So far, the strategy has not been enacted by a presidential decree, and therefore has not been made public in full.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
