SHANGHAI, November 29. /TASS/. The transfer of nuclear weapons to Kiev, should it ever occur, will pose a greater threat to Ukraine rather than provide a means of ensuring its security, Sun Qi, the Executive Director of the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told TASS.
"I consider the West's approach of 'possessing nuclear weapons' highly irresponsible. These reckless speculations could easily trigger a series of security and diplomatic crises," the expert stated. When Ukraine signed the 1994 Budapest Memorandum with the United States, Britain, and Russia, it committed to relinquishing nuclear weapons and becoming a non-nuclear state," Qi noted.
"If Ukraine were to acquire nuclear weapons again, they would not only fail to enhance its security, but would escalate the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a potential nuclear war. We can say that the West's nuclear rhetoric this time not only violates international laws and regulations, but also intensifies geopolitical tensions," he said.
In the context of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the presence of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would provoke a severe response from Russia, the expert warned.
"Nuclear weapons would likely be a greater threat to Ukraine than a tool for ensuring its security," he argued.
Earlier, The New York Times reported that some officials in the United States and European countries have suggested that Kiev might be rearmed with nuclear weapons, which Ukraine gave up after the collapse of the Soviet Union.