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London and Paris have rejected Russia’s statements about allegedly preparing to transfer a ‘nuclear bomb’ to Kyiv, and Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has called the claims absurd.
Representatives of Great Britain and France denied the statement spread by the Russian authorities about their countries’ alleged readiness to hand over a nuclear bomb to Kyiv at a meeting of the UN Security Council – previously, the British government and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had also rejected the claims.
Russian Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, repeated the Russian authorities’ claims about allegedly preparing to transfer a nuclear bomb to Ukraine.
UK’s junior minister for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, Stehen Doughty, called the statements a blatant lie: “The accusation made by the representative of the Russian Federation is a blatant lie – he says that we have lost touch with reality, in fact, Russia has lost touch with reality.”
According to Doughty, this is yet another example of disinformation and an attempt to divert attention from the continuation of unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, stressing that London adheres to its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and does not and will not supply Ukraine with nuclear weapons or related technologies.
France’s representative to the UN Jerome Bonnafont also denied Russia’s statements, calling them ‘gross disinformation,’ noting that they ‘have no factual basis’: “It is precisely Russia that is violating, threatening nuclear weapons for four years, hiding its proliferation maneuvers, and supporting the nuclear programs of the DPRK and Iran, the civilian nature of which has never been proven.”
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed the claims the day before, saying that Russia’s claims about a nuclear and ‘dirty bomb’ were false, and that Moscow was trying to divert attention away from its crimes.
“This is a clear attempt by Vladimir Putin to divert attention from his terrible actions in Ukraine – there is no truth to this… We will continue our efforts to secure a just and lasting peace,” Sky News quoted Starmer as saying.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi told Reuters the Russian statements were absurd: “For the record: Ukraine has already denied such absurd statements by Russia many times, and we are officially denying them again.”
Russian Foreign Intelligence Service announced yesterday that London and Paris were allegedly actively working on a secret transfer of nuclear weapons to Kyiv – atomic or so-called dirty bombs.
According to the agency, the supply should be disguised in such a way that the appearance of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would appear to be the ‘result of the development by Ukrainians themselves.”
Kremlin President Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called this information ‘extremely important,’ saying it posted a threat to the entire non-proliferation regime and Moscow would take it into account during further negotiations.
Putin said at the FSB board that the consequences of attempts to use the nuclear components, emphasising that ‘Russia’s opponents know how this would end.’
