US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. — Reuters file
The United States is not contemplating the return of nuclear weapons to Ukraine, which it relinquished following the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Sullivan addressed this matter during an interview on Sunday when asked about a recent New York Times article that suggested some unnamed Western officials had proposed that President Joe Biden might supply Ukraine with nuclear arms before his term ends.
"That is not being considered, no. Instead, we are bolstering various conventional capabilities for Ukraine to enable them to defend themselves effectively and counterattack the Russians, not by providing nuclear capability," Sullivan stated on ABC.
Last week, Russia denounced the idea as "absolute insanity" and cited it as one of the reasons for its military intervention in Ukraine. Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 dissolution but relinquished them under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which secured security assurances from Russia, the United States, and Britain.
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