Is this a case of “loose speech getting out”? Or “people are just making stuff up”? Or “we’re just throwing thoughts around but weren’t serious”? Or “yeah, we’re really considering this”?
Russia condemns “irresponsible” talk of nuclear weapons for Ukraine
Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is “absolutely irresponsible”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.
The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested U.S. President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.
“Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications,” the newspaper wrote
Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: “These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous.”
Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.
Well, I certainly hope this isn’t something they’re really considering, but, you never know with Joe, his advisors, and the warmongers in NATO.
(Newsweek) “We are not planning to equip Ukraine with nuclear weapons,” the White House told Newsweek, when contacted for a response to these reports and Medvedev’s comments.
Anyone else not feel any better?
{Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia] continued, “Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;
2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.
The consequences are obvious.”
I don’t feel better.
Medvedev also criticized President Joe Biden‘s authorization of Ukraine to use long-range weapons to conduct deep strikes into Russian territory, which began last week and have continued escalating as both countries retaliate against one another.
He said that Ukraine’s use of US-made ATACMS in an attack in Bryansk last week has led to what “can now be qualified as an attack by the bloc’s countries on Russia,” and that “in this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII.”
Would Joe really want to get into a nuclear war just because he was booted out of running for re-election?
Read: Are US And NATO Considering Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons? »