The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph quoted a Ukrainian security source as saying that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement about having nuclear weapons as the only alternative to NATO membership was made against the background of the West’s unwillingness to accept the “victory plan” presented by him.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Brussels on 17 October that Ukraine’s possession of nuclear weapons was the only alternative to NATO membership. Later, the Bild newspaper quoted a source as saying that the Kiev authorities were considering the possibility of restoring the stockpile of nuclear weapons.
According to The Daily Telegraph’s Ukrainian security source, the Ukrainian authorities are starting to “despair” over the West’s unwillingness to accept the country into NATO. The newspaper noted that Western politicians had a “cold” attitude to Zelenskyy’s “plan”. In their opinion, it is a list of wishes and requests rather than a deeply thought-out strategy.
The newspaper’s unnamed source agreed that Zelenskyy’s words “contain an element of posturing and brinkmanship.”
“There is an understanding that countries with nuclear weapons are treated differently. This is an existential conflict for Ukraine. It seems that some in the West don’t realise this,” the interlocutor told The Daily Telegraph.
Experts interviewed by the newspaper expressed doubts that Ukraine’s possession of nuclear weapons could serve as a deterrent.
“How would a nuclear Ukraine deter a nuclear Russia? How would nuclear weapons help Ukraine in Crimea and eastern Ukraine? This is not a magic wand, as people think,” said Pavel Podvig of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research.
We shall remind you that earlier Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on the creation of Russian year-round sea resorts that Russia would solve all the tasks of the special military operation in Ukraine, as well as the issues of ensuring security in the new regions.