View from Europe: Russian intelligence claims UK and France plan to send nuclear arms to Ukraine

Pic.: You Tube

Senior Russian security official Dimitry Medvedev threatened Kyiv, Paris and London with nuclear strikes on Tuesday, following unfounded reports from the Kremlin alleging that France and the UK were working on supplying Ukraine with nuclear weapons, Euronews reports.

Russia's primary foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, claimed that "London and Paris" were "preparing to arm Kyiv with a nuclear bomb" on Tuesday, alleging that Ukraine's allies sought to achieve a "victory over Russia at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces".

The claims were subsequently picked up by the Russian state news agency TASS and amplified by pro-Kremlin accounts on social media, who shared the SVR's claims that France and the UK's plan constituted a "flagrant violation of international law".

French Response, linked to the French Foreign Ministry and designed to tackle misinformation, refuted the claim.

The UK Ministry of Defence declined to publicly respond to our request for comment on the allegations, but Sky News reported that the British government has already said there was "no truth" to the allegations.

Germany 'refused to take part' in the venture.

The statement from SVR also claimed that the German government refused to provide Kyiv with a nuclear weapon.

"Berlin has prudently refused to take part in this dangerous venture," it reads.

A spokesperson for Germany's Ministry of Defence said the ministry "does not comment on media reports and does not respond to statements from such sources".

The SVR's claims would mean France and the UK would be in breach of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which stipulates that states must not transfer nuclear weapons to non-nuclear-weapon states, such as Ukraine.

The only other recognised states under the treaty are China, Russia and the US.

Zelenskyy has expressed his preference for joining NATO over giving Ukraine nuclear weapons, although he conceded that if it took too long for Kyiv to be admitted to the alliance, then nuclear warheads would be a possible deterrence.

The Russian Federation Council called for investigations after the statement of the SVR about plans to supply nuclear weapons to Kiev

The Federation Council called on the United Kingdom and France to conduct parliamentary investigations after statements by the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) about the intention of London and Paris to supply nuclear weapons to Ukraine. The relevant appeal was sent through diplomatic channels to the parliaments of Great Britain and France, the European Parliament, as well as to the UN, the IAEA and the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Izvestia reports.

"In connection with the information provided by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service about the intention of Great Britain and France to supply nuclear explosive devices to Ukraine, the senators of the Russian Federation called on members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords of Great Britain, as well as deputies of the National Assembly and members of the French Senate to immediately initiate appropriate parliamentary investigations," the appeal says.

“Information about plans of France and the UK to give nuclear weapons and means of delivery to Kiev requires an immediate response,” said the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin commenting the information provided by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia about the plans of London and Paris.

“We plan to discuss it at the meeting of the Council of the State Duma today.

It would be right to prepare a relevant address to the parliaments of France and the UK to conduct a parliamentary investigation of this information to identify officials who are engaged in this criminal conspiracy violating the international law and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Such actions are a real criminal activity that could lead to a nuclear war. It is inadmissible,” added Vyacheslav Volodin.

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