Moscow has responded to fresh words of Ukraine's President Zelensky wherein he urged for the West grant Ukraine nuclear weapons access. "Give us back nuclear arms," Zelensky said while discussing scenarios of how the Ukraine war could end in a televised interview with Piers Morgan.
Zelensky told Morgan: "Will we be given nuclear weapons? Then, let them give us nuclear weapons. Will they give us the missiles in the quantities [needed to] stop Russia? I’m not sure of that, but I think it would help. Otherwise, what missiles can stop Russia’s nuclear missiles?" He added: "That’s a rhetorical question."
And that's when he urged more seriously, "So, let’s do it the following way: Give us back nuclear arms. Give us missile systems. Partners, help us finance the one-million[-man] army, move your contingent on the parts of our state where we want the stability of the situation, so that the people have tranquility."
The day following the publication of the interview, and with the provocative nuclear remarks grabbing headlines, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov characterized the words as "approaching madness".
"On the whole, such statements as well as all similar statements are approaching madness. There is a nuclear non-proliferation regime and so on," Peskov told journalists.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded similarly, saying these nuclear ambitions of Kiev in the midst of war are the ravings of a "maniac" and that it reveals "sick delusions".
Zakharova stated Wednesday, "Zelensky’s latest statements that he wants to possess a nuclear capability expose him as a maniac, who considers the planet as an object for his sick delusions. They also prove that for him nuclear power stations are not a source of peaceful energy, but a dirty weapon that the Kiev regime needs for blackmail."
The historic, post-Soviet Budapest Memorandum signed between Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States is what finally dissolved Kiev's Soviet nuclear arsenal by common agreement.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Feb. 2022 - and even a little before it - Zelensky has lamented that Ukraine was forced to do this, reasoning that if the country still had nukes, Russia could not have invaded and the war would not be playing out as it has.
But Russia's RT has noted that Zelensky's claims are not fully accurate regarding the history of nuclear weapons and Ukraine. "Contrary to Zelensky’s assertion, independent Ukraine lacked a true nuclear deterrent as it did not possess the unilateral capability to launch Soviet weapons deployed on its soil in response to an attack," RT writes.