French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Premier Donald Tusk met on Dec. 12 in Warsaw. High on the agenda was how to support Ukraine in the “new Transatlantic context.” On the sidelines of the visit, the Élysée emphasized that “France’s position is that it is necessary to support Ukraine
For the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum, The Kyiv Independent’s Daria Shulzhenko visits a former Soviet-era nuclear missile silo in south Ukraine.
Zelensky added that effective guarantees are currently needed for Ukraine's security, namely "real alliances and a real security foundation within the country," as well as "weapons that enable defense and deterrence of the enemy."
On Dec. 5, 1994, Ukraine had signed a set of political agreements that would guarantee the country's sovereignty and independence in return for accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Signed in Budapest, the memorandum would lay grounds for Ukraine to dispose of its nuclear arsenal
The world faces the dawn of a "third nuclear age," the head of the U.K.'s armed forces Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said on Dec. 4.
The Kyiv Independent’s reporter Oleg Sukhov sat down with Robert Kelley to discuss whether the weapon Ukraine gave up would be of much use now and if the country still has the capacity to produce a nuclear device.
The United States is not considering returning to Ukraine the nuclear weapons the country previously agreed to give up under the Budapest Memorandum, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an interview on Dec. 1.
Vladimir Putin's talks of a potential nuclear strike "gradually lead to an increase in the proportion of (Russians) who believe it is acceptable, in fact, morally justified," Russian sociologist Alexey Levinson said.
Intelligence assessments over the past seven months have shown that a nuclear escalation is unlikely to result from a decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S. weapons.
Joe Rogan, one of the world's most popular podcasters, has sparked outrage in Ukraine, after claiming that Kyiv and its Western allies, rather than Russia, "are about to start World War III." In an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience last Friday, the U.S. host criticized the outgoing President
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the twice-weekly newsletter “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on Nov. 23, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to The Counteroffensive, click here. For a brief period just over 30 years ago, Ukraine possessed the third-largest
Following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman from New York, publicly appealed to those who had voted for both her and Trump. She wanted to know what motivated such an apparently inconsistent choice, and the predominant answer she heard was
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's comments came in the wake of Russia's attack on Dnipro a day earlier.
"We haven’t seen any indications of Russia preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. We just have not seen that," White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said on Nov. 21.
The comments came on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country had launched its "newest missile," an IRBM called "Oreshnik," in an attack on Dnipro, eastern Ukraine.
Key developments on Nov. 20: * Ukraine strikes Russia with Storm Shadows for the first time, Bloomberg reports * Biden approves delivery of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine in light of Russian gains in east * Ukrainian drones allegedly strike Russian factories, weapons arsenal * North Korean troops in Russia to be led by secrecy-shrouded
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Nov. 19 that Moscow "will respond accordingly" to Washington's permission for Ukraine to strike Russian soil with U.S. weapons.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh dismissed Russia’s rhetoric surrounding its nuclear policy as a continuation of its behavior over the past two years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to intimidate the West by expanding the conditions for using nuclear weapons in Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Nov. 19.
The revised doctrine outlines scenarios that could justify a nuclear strike. It implies that this could include "aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear state" and large-scale non-nuclear attacks, such as those carried out with drones.
"Ukraine is committed to the NPT (the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons); we do not possess, develop, or intend to acquire nuclear weapons," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said via X.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is approaching its 11th year, with three years of full-scale war. In search of security guarantees like NATO membership, Ukraine has been left in limbo due to Russian-occupied territories and Western bureaucracy. In light of Russian advances and Western indecision, Kyiv has stated that NATO
Amid the looming risk that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may pull the plug on Washington's support for Ukraine, Kyiv has begun to flirt with the option of nuclear deterrence. The prospect of such a scenario was raised weeks earlier when President Volodymyr Zelensky in October said he had told
With Ukraine's future hanging in the balance ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, Ukraine’s president turned up the heat, invoking the specter of nuclear weapons to nudge whoever lands in the Oval Office toward offering more conventional weaponry and robust security guarantees to Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelensky
"We officially refute the insinuations of unnamed sources in the Bild publication regarding Ukraine's alleged plans to develop weapons of mass destruction."
Key developments on Oct. 17: * Zelensky says he told Trump that either Ukraine will join NATO or pursue nuclear weapons * Zelensky walks back earlier comments on Ukraine's possible plan to obtain nuclear weapons * 'First step to World War' — North Korea preparing 10,000 soldiers to join Russia's war, Zelensky confirms
"We never spoke about...that we are preparing to create nuclear weapons or something like this," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, which will serve as protection, or it must be part of some kind of alliance. Apart from NATO, we do not know of such an effective alliance," President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had told Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The two-week drills will involve over 2,000 military personnel and 60 aircraft from eight airbases. They will take place in Belgium, the Netherlands, and in the airspace over Denmark, the U.K., and the North Sea, with 13 NATO countries sending aircraft to participate.
Years back, Russia began the development of several new strategic weapons, as Russian President Vladimir Putin had called them, to modernize the country’s military and give it an edge against the so-called West, a conflict that was in full swing. Among them was the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM, known as
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a seemingly significant modification of Russia’s military doctrine in a statement on Sept. 25. He revealed that the new doctrine would propose considering aggression against Russia by a non-nuclear state, “with the participation or support of a nuclear state,” as a “joint attack” on
President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed skepticism in an interview with Fox News over Russian President Vladimir Putin's continued nuclear threats since the full-scale war, saying that Putin "loves his life" and is, therefore, likely afraid to use nuclear weapons. "Nobody knows what's in his head," Zelensky said in the interview, which
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