Ukraine which acceded as a non-nuclear weapon state is now re-considering the option if support from the Western countries falter
By Special Correspondent in Vienna
As a last-minute bid to draw strong support from U.S. and European allies, Ukrainian scientists are reportedly reconsidering Kyiv’s decision to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
It is not yet clear to most observers whether the move is a bluff or reflects the true intentions of concerned scientists.
Arab and Israeli diplomats in Kyiv on January 22 have confirmed that several top scientists had offered their services to Ukraine to save the motherland from further occupation and defend every inch on their own if NATO refuses to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and deny urgent assistance with substantive and modern armaments to match Russia’s three-pronged planned action against Ukraine by mid-February.
Arab diplomats claim that Israeli intelligence in Europe has noticed an urgency within the Ukrainian scientific community and a series of meetings were reportedly held between ‘patriotic scientists’ and relevant departments in Kyiv. Israeli sources also claimed that Ukrainian diplomats in several countries have also been asked to present names and contacts of scientific experts willing to ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and defense against massive Russian war machines. Arab diplomats have noticed extraordinary activities of Israeli diplomats in monitoring the new situation around the scientific institutions of Ukraine.
Ukrainian leaders have earlier made clear that Ukraine not only needs solidarity from the West but also military equipment. They believe Ukraine’s accession to NATO is the only way to prevent a military attack from Russia. Diplomats from Kyiv have called on the Western countries to either provide Ukraine with modern weapons or restore its nuclear status. Ukraine has also been considering to re-equip itself with nuclear weapons if it does not become a member of NATO. “Either we are part of an alliance like NATO and also contribute to making this Europe stronger … or we have only one option, which is to arm ourselves,” Ukrainian diplomat Andrej Melnyk had said. Kyiv would then “consider its nuclear status. How else can we guarantee our defense?”
Sources in Kyiv have warned that if Ukraine reconsiders its nuclear ambitions, Russia could swiftly place its own nuclear assets in neighboring Belarus thus complicating the situation further. Ukrainian nationalists are demanding strong commitments from NATO to defend its sovereignty or allow it to adopt any means to protect its territorial integrity.
Ukraine acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in December 1994 as a non-nuclear weapon state and abandoned its as many as 3,000 nuclear weapons it inherited when it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991.
According to diplomats in Europe, a nuclear-related scenario could automatically alert Israel which has a long history of targeting Muslim scientists from Iran to Arab and African continents. Knowledgeable sources say that Israel could exploit the current Russia-Ukraine tensions to block Moscow’s newly discovered strategic ties with arch-rival Iran.
Israeli sources stated that should Ukraine consider nuclear options, Iran’s bargaining position which is in the final days of the JCPOA deal would also become strong.
In an opinion article in UAE’s daily The National, Raghida Derham argued on January 16, 2022, that Moscow believes that the world needs to learn to coexist with a “peaceful and stable” nuclear Iran and its position is to largely agree to Iran’s demands. These include rejecting any additional mechanisms to monitor its nuclear program beyond the already-existing arrangement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and returning to the JCPOA.
