US President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, claimed that Ukraine never had its own nuclear weapons and that the arsenal it once possessed always belonged to Russia – sparking an immediate backlash from politicians and diplomats.
Grenell took to X to “clarify” the Budapest Memorandum, writing:
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“The nukes were Russia’s and were leftovers. Ukraine gave the nukes back to Russia. They weren’t Ukraine’s. This is an uncomfortable fact.”
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, trailing only the US and Russia. At the time it possessed around 2,000 nuclear warheads, along with intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers capable of delivering them.
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, who helped broker the 1994 Budapest Memorandum by which Kyiv agreed to hand over its arsenal in return for security assurances, was quick to correct Grenell.
“Flat wrong,” Pifer wrote, saying that the nuclear warheads in Ukraine belonged to the former Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was a part, and not Russian.
“Warheads in storage were in sole Ukrainian custody. ICBMs and bombers were eliminated in Ukraine except for a small number sent to #Russia for debt relief,” he added.
Pifer also pointed out that Ukraine agreed to send the warheads to Russia for dismantling largely because Moscow had pledged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and not to use force against it.
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British politician and former UK Independence Party leader Henry David Bolton also slammed Grenell’s statement, telling his 1.7 million followers that he “has his facts completely wrong.”
“Either that or he’s intentionally deceiving you. Those nukes were absolutely NOT Russian. They were inherited by Ukraine when the Soviet Union broke up,” Bolton wrote.
“Don’t believe me? Then do your own research,” he added.
But it was former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger who delivered the bluntest commentary, firing back on X:
“They were Soviet, you ignorant a** helmet. So, they were as equally Ukraine’s as Russia’s. This is day-one knowledge.”
He also underlined the fact that the nuclear weapons were Soviet and inherited by the states where they were deployed – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan – though operational control over strategic weapons remained with Moscow.
On Dec. 5, 1994, Ukraine, the US, the UK, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum. Under this agreement, Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from the signatory states.
Russia specifically pledged to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and to refrain from using or threatening force against the country. Moscow also committed to avoiding nuclear threats.
In turn, the US and the UK provided security guarantees that stated they would come to Ukraine’s assistance in the event of external aggression.
However, the memorandum lacked clear enforcement mechanisms, ultimately making it ineffective in ensuring Ukraine’s security as Russia’s initial 2014 annexations and its 2022 full-scale invasion subsequently showed.
More fears of Russian nuke use
According to a Bloomberg report, US intelligence has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin could resort to the use of nuclear weapons if the war he started fails. This assessment was contained in the report published by the US Director of National Intelligence on March 25.
“Russia’s inability to achieve quick and decisive battlefield wins, coupled with Ukrainian strikes within Russia, continues to drive concerns that Putin might use nuclear weapons,” the document reads.
According to Sky News, US intelligence has also concluded that Russia is in the process of developing a satellite capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Analysts warn that such a development could have “devastating consequences” for the US and the entire world.
This followed last year’s assessment by Mike Turner, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, that Russia was planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space.
Russia has begun exercises involving regiments in Sverdlovsk and Altai regions that are equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the state-run RIA news agency reported, citing the Russian defense ministry which said the Yars ICBM “will be deployed to field positions.”
The report said that more than 3,000 servicemen along with about 300 units of equipment were involved in the exercise that was being held in Russia’s Tver region.
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