First Ukrainian Nuke Ready in Weeks, BILD Says; Kyiv Denies

[Updates: 7:57 p.m.]

Ukraine’s Presidential Communications Advisor Dmytro Lytvyn dismissed BILD’s claim and said it’s “[playing] into the hands of Russian propaganda.” 

“Yes, this is not the first time that Bild has spread something that has no connection to reality, but plays into the hands of Russian propaganda,” Lytvyn told Interfax Ukraine. 

An unnamed senior Ukrainian official “specializing in weapons procurement” reportedly said Ukraine could build a nuclear bomb within weeks during a closed meeting a few months prior.

“We have the material, we have the knowledge. If the order is given, we will only need a few weeks to have the first bomb,” the official reportedly said at the time, according to German news outlet BILD. The publication did not state when exactly the “closed meeting” took place.

According to BILD, the same official warned at the time that the West should “think less about Russia’s red lines and more about our red lines.”

The publication said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s latest statement on Thursday regarding his country’s solution to the war being either restoring its status as a nuclear state or becoming a NATO member echoed the official’s alleged claim a few months prior.

Speaking in Brussels to the European Council on Thursday, Zelensky said he told US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that Ukraine’s answer to Russia’s invasion is either restoring its nuclear capability or joining NATO, and Ukraine is opting for the latter.

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It’s unclear when the conversation between Zelensky and Trump took place.

Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Germany, also made similar statements in 2021, prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, that Ukraine had to guarantee its defense by either joining NATO or restoring its nuclear arsenal.

Zelensky also brought up the Budapest Memorandum in his Thursday speech, a 1990s security agreement that saw Kyiv relinquishing its nuclear arsenal following the dissolution of the USSR in return for security guarantees from the US, the UK, and Russia that were never released upon Moscow’s invasion.

Up until Dec. 5, 1994, Ukraine was officially the third-largest nuclear power in the world.

However, it is to be noted that while Ukraine physically possessed the weapons and the expertise to develop and maintain them – although the lack of resources would’ve likely prevented it from doing so – Moscow retained control over these weapons.

While a think tank reported that Ukraine possesses “no uranium enrichment plant or fuel production facilities for nuclear power plants,” where “Ukrainian uranium concentrate was shipped to Russia for enrichment and fuel fabrication” prior to the 2022 invasion, it’s possible the country retained the knowledge base needed to restart its nuclear programs if it so wishes.