“Tse zrada.” Zelensky regrets that Kyiv does not have nuclear weapons
Ukraine could speak “on an equal footing” with the whole world, including Russia, if it possessed nuclear weapons.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports this in an interview with the HBO program Axios, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said.
He was asked whether people in Ukraine felt betrayed due to the failure to fulfill security guarantees after the renunciation of nuclear weapons in the early 90s, as provided for in the Budapest Memorandum.
“In general, I think that this is a betrayal towards Ukraine. I think this is a big mistake. After all, any global diplomatic agreements from the moment the Budapest Memorandum is not implemented are “multiplied by zero,” said the President of Ukraine.
According to him, he understands that “nuclear weapons are very bad.”
“But if Ukraine had nuclear weapons now, if we had not made such a big mistake then, and I believe that this is a mistake today, then there would not have been an invasion, and we would have had our own territories. Because we could always speak on equal terms with the Russian Federation and with the whole world. That’s all,” says the head of Ukraine.
However, further, answering a clarifying question, he added that today it is wrong to try to return Ukraine’s nuclear status.
“Still, we must not turn from people into animals,” Zelensky concluded.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.