The UK and France are also considering a radioactive “dirty bomb” as an option for Kiev, the SVR has claimed
FILE PHOTO: A French nuclear test, Mururoa Atoll, 1971. © Galerie Bilderwelt / Getty Images
[RT] France
and the UK are plotting to secretly arm Ukraine with a nuclear weapon,
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said on Tuesday.
According to the agency, British and French officials are considering the “covert transfer of relevant European-made components, equipment, and technologies to Ukraine,”
and are laying the groundwork for an information campaign that would
misrepresent the nuclear capacity as domestically developed.
The
SVR claimed that another option under consideration is to provide
Ukraine with a French TN 75 warhead, used in the nation’s
submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It added that Ukraine could also
be encouraged to build a ‘dirty bomb’ – a conventional explosive device
laden with radioactive materials designed to cause prolonged
contamination of a territory.
“Kiev would be able to aspire to more advantageous terms of ceasing the hostilities if it possesses a nuclear or at least a so-called ‘dirty’ bomb,” the SVR said in a statement. It added that fellow NATO member Germany “has prudently refused to take part in this dangerous venture.”
Officials in London and Paris appear to be losing “touch with reality,” the agency said, warning that responsibility for such a reckless operation would fall on them.
The
Russian State Duma intends to vote on a formal resolution calling on
lawmakers in the UK and France to investigate the SVR allegations,
Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
the warning was “potentially very dangerous” since the alleged plot poses a threat to nuclear non-proliferation.
Ukraine
has long claimed that it gave up a nuclear arsenal in exchange for
security guarantees that later proved worthless. While a significant
portion of Soviet nuclear forces were stationed in Ukraine, Kiev never
controlled the missiles.
The 1994 Budapest Memorandums provided
assurances – but not legally binding guarantees – to Ukraine, Belarus,
and Kazakhstan that their territorial integrity would be respected after
transferring Soviet nuclear weapons to Russia. Ukraine’s Vladimir
Zelensky suggested Kiev could reconsider its 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.