On Sunday Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky was interviewed on Lex Fridman’s podcast where he lamented the fact he doesn’t have nuclear weapons.
Ukraine formerly had nuclear weapons, being part of the Soviet Union, however these were removed from the country following the fall of the USSR and the secession of Ukraine.
“Ukraine had nuclear weapons. I do not want to characterize it as good or bad. Today, the fact that we do not have them is bad. Why? Because this is war,” Zelensky said at 1:24:38. “The Budapest Memorandum, nuclear weapons, this is what we had. Ukraine used them for protection.”
Zelensky went on to discuss how the nuclear states of the U.S. and Russia were instrumental in disarming Ukraine of its nuclear weapons, yet, according to the Ukrainian ruler, they did not provide security guarantees. It should be noted that regardless of what Zelensky considers a ‘security guarantee’, the U.S. has sent hundreds of billion of dollars to fund Ukraine’s war.
“That is give up nuclear weapons because you were under pressure of the U.S. and Russia for Ukraine to give them up. These two powers were exerting pressure. These two states negotiated to ensure that Ukraine does not have nuclear weapons. Ukraine agreed. These are the largest states. This is the nuclear five that does not even provide security guarantees” Zelensky said at 1:26:59.
Zelensky complained that other countries get to have nuclear weapons but his country is left out of the weapons of mass destruction club.
“And by the way, Israel has nuclear weapons,” Zelensky said at 1:44:44. “So why do they need NATO when in fact they have more than NATO has?”
This is not the first time Zelensky has called for nuclear weapons, having done so back in October. His ‘victory plan‘ detailed continued war with Russia, NATO membership and three classified points, which may have been nuclear in nature.
Notably, the West was considering giving Ukraine nuclear weapons and Russia recently gave Belarus nuclear weapons.