Eyebrows raised as Zelensky touts nuclear option as alternative to joining NATO

Increasingly frustrated at the West’s unwillingness to extend Kyiv an invitation to join NATO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the prospect of restoring the country’s nuclear capability as an alternative in a speech to EU leaders in Brussels, The Telegraph reported on Thursday.

“Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, which will serve as protection, or it must be part of some kind of alliance,” Zelensky said, adding that “Apart from NATO, we do not know of such an effective alliance.”

Ukrainian sources told The Telegraph that though there were elements of posturing and brinkmanship in Zelensky’s statement, it should nevertheless be taken seriously.

Analysts who spoke to The Telegraph stressed that nuclear weapons were not a magic wand, and would have merely increased the risk of nuclear war, while at the same time failing to deter the Russian invasion. Ukraine having nuclear weapons would also complicate negotiations over the country’s prospective NATO membership, they added.

Speaking anonymously, one diplomat warned Ukrainian independent news outlet Strana.ua that talk of nuclear rearmament could have dire consequences, citing “growing apprehension” in the EU and US over the growing pressure being exerted on them by Kyiv to take “steps that could increase tension between Russia and the West”.

“This is a potentially extremely dangerous situation for Ukraine, as the country risks turning from a ‘defender of Europe’ … into a source of … provoking a nuclear war in the eyes of the West,” the diplomat said.

Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine gained its independence and inherited the large Soviet nuclear arsenal stationed on its territory. Under the Budapest Memorandum, however, Kyiv handed those weapons over to Russia in 1994 in exchange for Moscow recognising its territorial integrity.