Ukraine denies selling nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda

In 1998 Ukrainian scientists sold Al Qaeda representatives a compact supply of nuclear weapons, which could have been fitted into a small suitcase, foreign media have reported with reference to Al Hayat newspaper. As Rosbalt was informed by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, an official statement has been released describing this information as 'absolutely shocking and completely groundless.'

The ministry stressed that 'in order to meet the requirements of a bilateral agreement with Russia dating from April 1992, whereby Ukraine had to transfer its nuclear weapons to Russia for destruction, all Ukraine's strategical nuclear weapons were removed to the Russian Federation by June 1996. Therefore Ukraine met all the obligations on nuclear weapons which it had inherited from the Soviet Union on time,' the declaration reads.

Moreover, the ministry confirmed that any nuclear weapons that are still on Ukrainian territory are under constant international control in line with an agreement between Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency.