MOSCOW, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia accused Ukraine on Tuesday of trying to obtain a nuclear weapon with help from Britain and France, an allegation Kyiv called an absurd lie.
A French foreign ministry spokesperson said the allegation was "blatant disinformation". A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "There's no truth to this."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously criticised Kyiv's decision to give up its former Soviet nuclear arsenal in the 1990s without obtaining proper, binding security guarantees. But Kyiv has said it does not seek to re-acquire nuclear weapons, and respects all international treaties.
NUCLEAR THREATS
In a statement published on the fourth anniversary of the war, Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service said Britain and France believed that Ukraine would be able to secure more favourable terms for ending the war if it possessed "a nuclear bomb, or at least a so-called 'dirty bomb'". It did not include documentary evidence to back its assertion.
A dirty bomb is an explosive device laced with radioactive material that could contaminate a wide area. But it is completely different from an atomic weapon designed to set off a massive nuclear explosion.
The SVR said London and Paris were "actively working" on the provision of nuclear weapons and delivery systems to Ukraine, while making it look as though Kyiv had obtained them by itself.
Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, told Reuters: "For the record: Ukraine has already denied such absurd Russian claims many times before, and we officially deny them again now."
Throughout the conflict, Moscow has repeatedly issued veiled nuclear threats to deter the West from going too far in its support of Ukraine.
"We once again warn of the risks of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers and, accordingly, of its potentially dire consequences," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying Moscow would brief the United States on the matter, and that it would have an impact on U.S.-brokered talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alex Richardson)
