RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Sergei Naryshkin, the chief of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), claimed that the SVR had gotten information indicating that Ukraine was engaged in developing its very own nuclear weapons.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warnings to quit the Budapest Agreement, according to Naryshkin, were “not an empty promise.”
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened to consider removing Ukraine from the Budapest Agreement, which required the newly independent Ukraine to hand over its nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union in return for security assurances.
Naryshkin pointed out that Ukraine still has the technological capability to build nuclear weapons, which is higher than Iran’s and North Korea’s.
“Not only did [Russia] know about this, but the Americans also did. At the same time, not only did they not interfere in their plans, but [they] were also ready, as they say, to lend a helping hand to the Ukrainians, apparently hoping that Ukrainian nukes would be aimed not to the west, but to the east.”
The Russian intelligence chief also chastised EU countries for failing to respond after Zelensky threatened to retract his nation from the Budapest Agreement, which had been signed in 1994 and under which newly independent Ukraine decided to give up the nuclear weapons it inherited from the Soviet Union and pledged to remain non-nuclear.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously stated that weaponry that would endanger Russia just can not be installed on Ukrainian soil. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the initiation of a special operation by Russian armed troops in Ukraine to demilitarize and “denazify” the nation.
This article was mirrored. It was published first by GreatGameIndia