Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on June 6 denied that Ukraine had suggested that the West station missile defenses on its territory.
Asked during a news conference in Kyiv after talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper whether Ukraine had suggested that the West deploy missile defenses on Ukrainian territory “due to the probability of Russian nuclear weapons being stationed in Crimea,” Poroshenko answered: “No, it hasn’t. At the moment this matter is not on the agenda.”
At the same time, he said, Ukraine makes maximum efforts to strengthen its defense capability, that it has allocated more than 5 percent of gross domestic product for the purpose, and that it uses much of its defense budget to buy new and modernize available weapons.
“I’m sure that Ukraine would be able to protect itself,” Poroshenko said, adding that Ukraine would continue talks with NATO countries and the guarantors of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum – Britain, the United States and Russia – in seeking to strengthen its defense capability.
