Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to Volodymyr Zelensky’s nuclear remarks. Ukraine’s president had suggested he would seek nuclear weapons if Kiev failed to join NATO, but Zelenskyy later retracted his remarks.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments about nuclear weapons earlier this week were a “dangerous provocation.”
Putin was referring to Zelensky’s suggestion that Kiev would seek nuclear weapons if it failed to join NATO.
At the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, Ukraine’s president referred to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum under which Ukraine was to give up its Soviet nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.
President Zelensky said: “Who has given up nuclear weapons? Everyone? No, Ukraine. Who is fighting today? Ukraine.”
He added: “Either Ukraine should have nuclear weapons and that will protect us, or we should form some kind of alliance. Apart from NATO, we don’t know of any effective alliances today.” .
In response to President Zelensky’s comments on Friday, President Putin said that “any step in this direction will be met with an appropriate response.”
“Russia will not allow this to happen under any circumstances,” he added.
Zelenskiy later walked back his remarks at a joint press conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte, saying: “There was never any talk that we were preparing to build nuclear weapons or anything like that.”
“We are not using nuclear weapons. Please do not move these messages,” he added.
President Putin’s warning came during a meeting with journalists from members of the BRICS group.
The BRICS group, named after its members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, was founded in the mid-2000s to counter the political and economic power of the developed Western countries.
The bloc has grown to include Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia had media representatives present at Friday’s meeting and has been invited to join the group, but has not yet formally joined.
