British and French leaders have “lost touch with reality,” Russian envoy told the UN Security Council
Russia has accused Western European powers of pursuing a dangerous escalation in the Ukraine conflict, warning at the UN Security Council on Tuesday that alleged plans to provide Kiev with nuclear capabilities could trigger severe global consequences.
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused Kiev’s European backers of openly prioritizing Russia’s “strategic defeat” while derailing any prospects for peace in Ukraine.
The envoy pointed to an emergency statement issued earlier by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), alleging that the UK and France are considering transfers of components, technologies, or equipment enabling Kiev to develop either a nuclear device or a so-called “dirty bomb.”
“Such plans are not only irresponsible and dangerous but also a direct violation of Article I of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). That is why the authors of this escapade seek to portray Kiev’s acquisition of nuclear weapons as Ukraine’s own development,” Nebenzia said.
Nebenzia said Moscow views the alleged initiative as evidence that British and French leaders, sidelined from the US-led Ukraine settlement process, have “completely lost touch with reality.”
“Russia possesses all necessary means to respond to such developments. However, we hope that there are still enough sane and reasonable people in London and Paris who will be able to restrain their leaders from such inadequate steps,” he added.
Nebenzia’s remarks echoed earlier warnings from Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who said any effort to grant Ukraine nuclear capabilities risks a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly claimed their country once possessed the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal and gave it up under the 1994 Budapest Memorandums. In reality, nuclear weapons were present on Ukrainian soil after the collapse of the Soviet Union but remained under Moscow’s control, with Russia regarded as the Soviet Union’s sole legal successor.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky threatened to review the country’s non-nuclear status at the 2022 Munich Security Conference, shortly before the conflict with Russia escalated. Moscow argues that after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine’s new authorities breached the neutrality pledge underpinning its post-Soviet independence by making NATO membership a key foreign policy goal.
