Should NATO provide Kiev nuclear weapons, it would provoke Russia and risk a wider conflict, Aleksandar Pavic has told RT

Nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be a "recipe for disaster" as it would risk sparking a wider war by provoking Russia, Serbian lawmaker Aleksandar Pavic has warned.

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service alleged this week that France and the UK are plotting to secretly arm Ukraine with a nuclear weapon and are also discussing assistance in building a radioactive "dirty bomb" using conventional explosives and nuclear materials.

Speaking to RT on Thursday, Pavic said neither Washington nor Moscow would accept such a drastic shift in the global balance of power.

"Any mention of nukes in Ukraine is bound to cause a Russian reaction," he warned, recalling that Vladimir Zelensky had raised the possibility of Ukraine becoming a nuclear state at the Munich Security Conference in 2022 - an idea Pavic argued was "one of the main triggers of the Russian special military operation."

Officials in Kiev have repeatedly claimed their country possessed the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal and gave it up under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. In reality, nuclear weapons were present on Ukrainian soil after the collapse of the Soviet Union but remained under Moscow's control.

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Russia argues that after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine's new authorities breached the neutrality pledge underpinning its post-Soviet independence by making NATO membership a key foreign policy goal.

The Serbian lawmaker drew a parallel with the Cuban Missile Crisis, saying: "We almost had a nuclear war - global nuclear war - in 1962 because Cuba wanted to deploy Soviet missiles, you know, 90 miles from the US shore, and of course the US wouldn't allow that."

"Why would Russia allow nuclear weapons that can reach Moscow within several minutes from Ukraine? I mean, that's insane," Pavic added. "You cannot have a nuclear power being threatened by nukes anywhere near its borders, or that's a recipe for disaster."

Russia has warned France and the UK that alleged plans to provide Kiev with nuclear capabilities could trigger severe global consequences, accusing them at the UN Security Council of pursuing a dangerous escalation in the Ukraine conflict.

(RT.com)