MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Russia cannot ignore the hypothetical danger created by the calls for deploying nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"This is yet another dangerous trend and this is the hypothetical danger that our country cannot ignore," the Russian presidential spokesman said, commenting on the petition posted on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s website on deploying US nuclear weapons in the country.
As Peskov pointed out, "not all the petitions that appear there [on the Ukrainian president’s website] can be treated seriously." The Kremlin press secretary added that "the activation of this theme by itself is not a new element."
"Let us recall the Munich conference when President Zelensky himself spoke about this possibility," the Kremlin spokesman said.
On March 30, a petition was posted on Zelensky’s website with a proposal to deploy US nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil or make Ukraine a state with its own nuclear weapons. Given that the petition gains 25,000 votes within 90 days, the Ukrainian president will be required to examine it and give his response.
In his speech at the Munich security conference in February 2022, Zelensky said that Kiev might review its commitments under the 1994 Budapest memorandum stipulating that the country would give up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the emergence of even tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine posed a strategic threat to Russia.