Kremlin slams 'irresponsible' talk of Ukraine rejoining nuclear club

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a report in the New York Times.

The American newspaper reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested U.S. President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov said: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

"American politicians and journalists are seriously discussing the consequences of the transfer of nuclear weapons to Kyiv," Medvedev, who served as Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, said on Telegram.

He added: "The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to the fait accompli of an attack on our country," under Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the U.S. and Britain.

According to the Kyiv Independent, "for a brief period just over 30 years ago, Ukraine possessed the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Its missiles could reach targets more than 10,000 kilometers away in just 25 minutes."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that, as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired U.S. and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.

Last week, The Times of London estimated that Ukraine could build a rudimentary nuclear bomb within months using spent nuclear fuel stored at Ukrainian power plant.

Yurii Kostenko, a 1990s Ukrainian environment minister, was dismissive of the claim, telling The Counteroffensive: "Statements about Ukraine's nuclear capabilities are made either by total ignoramuses or by Russian provocateurs.

"As a person who worked on this issue continuously in parliament, I can assure you 100 percent that the Ukrainian government has never raised the issue of using nuclear weapons at any level."