Ukraine has expressed concern at the UN about Russia’s growing nuclear potential in the annexed Crimea, the agency Ukrifnorm writes on Wednesday.
“We are concerned about the risk of deploying uranium enrichment, dual-use materials and nuclear technologies on the peninsula,” said Yuriy Vitrenko, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, during a meeting of the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the International Day for the Complete Decommissioning of Nuclear Weapons.
He noted that the UN in a number of resolutions expressed concern about the militarization of the peninsula, including the deployment of nuclear weapons there, Ukrinform writes.
According to Vitrenko, Russia’s actions pose a direct threat to the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine
He also recalled the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, according to which the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom undertook, among other things, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine when it renounced possession of nuclear weapons inherited from the USSR. In 2014, the memorandum was violated by Russia, which annexed the Ukrainian Crimea.
Ukrinform notes that in August, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia’s intentions to place nuclear weapons in Crimea pose a global threat. He said that Kiev will use every opportunity to stop the Kremlin’s actions in this direction.