Putin Spins a Conspiracy Principle That Ukraine Is on a Path to Nuclear Weapons

MUNICH — When Ukraine gave up an enormous arsenal of nuclear weapons left on its territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it famously struck a cope with Washington, London and Moscow, buying and selling the weapons for a assure of its safety and borders.

Not surprisingly, the Ukrainian authorities is questioning what occurred to that assure.

However President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has a really totally different grievance: He’s spinning out a conspiracy idea — maybe as a pretext to grab the nation in a navy operation that started there early Thursday — that Ukraine and the USA are secretly plotting to place nuclear weapons again into the nation.

Mr. Putin’s arguments occupied a 3rd of his speech to the Russian people on Monday, when he made a sequence of weird costs that “Ukraine intends to create its personal nuclear weapons, and this isn’t simply bragging.” Then he constructed a second case that the USA is changing its missile defenses into offensive weapons, and has plans to place nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine gave up an enormous arsenal of nuclear weapons left over by the Soviet Union within the early 1990s, and used the gasoline from its blended-down warheads to drive its nuclear energy crops. At this time Ukraine doesn’t even have the fundamental infrastructure to supply nuclear gasoline, although Mr. Putin made the doubtful declare that it may decide that expertise up rapidly.

For his or her half, American officers have mentioned repeatedly that they don’t have any plans to position nuclear weapons within the nation — and by no means have, particularly since Ukraine is not a member of NATO.

However that has not stopped Mr. Putin from constructing a hypothetical case that every one these issues may occur, some day, theoretically placing Moscow in danger. He constructed on the theme at one other information convention on Tuesday, embracing a sequence of conspiracy theories that, added collectively, could nicely create the pretext to grab your complete nation.

“If Ukraine acquires weapons of mass destruction, the scenario on the earth and in Europe will drastically change, particularly for us, for Russia,” he mentioned. “We can’t however react to this actual hazard, all of the extra so since, let me repeat, Ukraine’s Western patrons could assist it purchase these weapons to create one more menace to our nation.”

Mr. Putin has made such arguments earlier than, after all, however normally as asides — not because the justification for pressing motion. And it was starkly totally different from the tone Moscow was taking 30 years in the past, when Russian nuclear scientists have been being voluntarily retrained to make use of their abilities for peaceable functions and nuclear weapons have been being faraway from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan with funds offered by American taxpayers.

“It’s a nice tragedy,” mentioned Rose Gottemoeller, who negotiated the New START arms management treaty with Russia and is now at Stanford College. “Putin is so steeped in his personal grievances that he doesn’t bear in mind how we labored collectively so intently — People, Ukrainians and Russians — to make sure the breakup of the Soviet nuclear arsenal didn’t result in the creation of three new nuclear weapons states.”

In truth, Mr. Putin is now utilizing the important thing settlement from that period, referred to as the Budapest Memorandum, to bolster his case. The memorandum — signed by Ukraine, the USA, Britain and Russia — enshrined the central cut price: Ukraine would give up your complete nuclear arsenal left inside its territory, and in return the opposite three nations would all assure Ukraine’s safety and the integrity of its borders. (Whereas Ukraine had bodily management of the weapons, the launch authority for them had remained within the palms of the Russians.)

But the memorandum by no means detailed what that safety assure entailed, and there was no promise of navy help within the occasion of an assault. However Mr. Putin blatantly violated that accord when he annexed Crimea in 2014 and did so once more on Monday when he recognized the two separatist republics, primarily claiming that they have been now not a part of Ukraine.

He mentioned this week that he was incensed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was publicly speaking about reconsidering the memorandum. Mr. Zelensky’s grievance, voiced on the Munich Safety Convention final weekend, is that the “assure” is proving no assure in any respect towards a nation with Russia’s powers of coercion.

Mr. Putin argued that if Ukraine was questioning the memorandum, it should need its personal nuclear arsenal.

“We consider the Ukrainian phrases are directed at us,” Mr. Putin mentioned at a information convention on Tuesday with the president of Azerbaijan. “And we heard them. They’ve extensive nuclear competency from Soviet instances, developed nuclear business, they’ve colleges, all the pieces they should transfer rapidly.”

Maybe recognizing that he may be over-describing the menace, Mr. Putin mentioned: “They don’t have one factor — a uranium enrichment program. However that’s a technical query. For Ukraine it’s not an unsolvable drawback; it’s straightforward to unravel it.”

Actually different nations have solved the issue, together with Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Israel and India. However it’s a prolonged, enormously advanced course of. Iran has been at it for 20 years now, and nonetheless doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, in line with Western intelligence assessments. (A new agreement to restrain Iran’s actions, and restore the 2015 nuclear deal, is anticipated to be introduced within the coming weeks — and officers say Russia, a celebration to the unique deal, has been useful within the negotiations.)

Mr. Putin additionally complained that Ukraine has “the supply automobiles for such weapons,” and right here he’s on safer floor. An previous missile plant, a remnant of the Soviet days, has stored going — and was at the center of a controversy a few years ago about whether or not its designs ended up within the palms of the North Koreans. (Ukraine’s president on the time, Petro O. Poroshenko, denied it.) Mr. Putin acknowledged that Ukraine’s present arsenal doesn’t have the attain to hit Moscow. However with the assistance of NATO and the West, he mentioned, “it’s only a matter of time.”

Then he turned his ire to Washington itself, constructing on the argument that it should get all of its nuclear weapons out of Europe — and definitely out of the previous Soviet bloc nations that joined NATO. He claimed that an antimissile system positioned in Poland and Romania — and designed to guard towards Iran — may secretly be transformed into an offensive system that will threaten Russia.

“In different phrases, the allegedly defensive U.S. missile protection system is growing and increasing its new offensive capabilities,” Mr. Putin mentioned. He made no point out of a suggestion from the USA to barter a brand new arms management settlement that will restrict the variety of websites on either side.

Once more, he mentioned, “it’s only a matter of time” earlier than Ukraine is admitted to NATO, and turns into the launching pad for potential assaults on Russia.

“We clearly perceive that given this state of affairs, the extent of navy threats to Russia will improve dramatically, a number of instances over,” Mr. Putin mentioned. “And I want to emphasize at this level that the chance of a sudden strike at our nation will multiply.”

His message appeared clear: The one method for Ukraine to keep away from changing into a platform for American weapons could be to take it over, or have it run by a pleasant authorities.