United States not considering return of nuclear weapons to Ukraine , which she gave up in the 1990s, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, BTA reports.
The remarks were made in an interview with ABC television, in response to a question raised by an article in the “New York Times”, according to which some Western officials suggested that President Joe Biden consider this move.
„That is not being considered, no. What we are doing is providing various conventional capabilities to Ukraine so that it can effectively defend itself and fight the Russians, not give them a nuclear capability,” emphasized Sullivan.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine inherited a significant arsenal of nuclear weapons, but gave them up under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. In return, the country received security guarantees from Russia, the United States and Great Britain.
Last week, Russia condemned the possibility of returning nuclear weapons to Ukraine, calling it “absolute madness”. The Kremlin added that preventing such a scenario was one of the reasons for starting the military operation in Ukraine.