MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. Ukraine does not have the ability to create a full-fledged nuclear weapon, but it is capable of making a dirty bomb, the country's former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov said.

"We have radioactive waste from the work of nuclear power plants. They (Ukrainians - TASS) can stuff shells, bombs with it [the waste] and drop them. All this will create radioactive contamination. The chances of creating a dirty bomb are big. If the Americans - the real masters of Ukraine - do not ban this, they can do anything," he told the Izvestia newspaper.

Azarov emphasized that nuclear research was carried out in Ukraine after it renounced nuclear weapons.

"We have a pilot reactor right in Kiev, there is an experimental nuclear reactor in Kharkov. According to my information, the reactor in Kharkov was damaged by shelling and nothing is being done about it now. And the one in Kiev is also out of order. Therefore, all talks about Kiev making a nuclear bomb are empty," the politician concluded.

On October 24, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said at a press conference in Brussels that Kiev's possession of nuclear weapons was the only alternative to joining NATO. Later, the Bild newspaper quoted a source as saying that the Ukrainian authorities were seriously considering the possibility of restoring nuclear weapons stockpiles. Zelensky then said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the Ukrainian authorities would not produce nuclear weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with the heads of leading BRICS media, called such statements by Zelensky "another dangerous provocation," noting that it is not easy, if not impossible, for Ukraine to build nuclear weapons today. Moreover, Putin emphasized, Moscow is able to track any move by Kiev to acquire nuclear weapons, and it is "impossible to hide such a move." According to the Russian leader, "any step in this direction will be met with an appropriate response.".