Ukraine ready to build nuclear bomb in a few weeks. Another threat or just bluff?

Ukraine is considering a possibility of creating nuclear weapons, Bild said citing a high-ranking Ukrainian official. The republic has the resources necessary to restore its nuclear arsenal, the official claimed.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by U.S. Air Force photo/Capt. Patrick Nichols, PDM

A high-ranking Ukrainian official told Bild that Kyiv has the materials and knowledge to build nuclear weapons. It would take Ukraine "only a few weeks" to make an A-bomb if relevant agreements could be reached quickly.

Not too long ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told former US President Donald Trump that Ukraine should have nuclear weapons or become a NATO member.

The issue of nuclear weapons has been raised in Ukraine repeatedly after the start of the special military operation. Retired Ukrainian General Serhiy Krivonos suggested the United States or the UK could deploy nuclear weapons and their carriers in Ukraine. According to former Pentagon adviser Douglas McGregor, the only way to change the situation in Ukraine was to bring nuclear weapons in.

It is worthy of note that modifications of F-16 fighter jets that Kyiv received from Western states could be capable of dropping B61 ​​and B83 nuclear bombs. B61 bombs can carry a warhead with a capacity of up to 50 kilotons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in May that Moscow would consider the delivery of F-16s to Kyiv as NATO's deliberate signal in the nuclear field. F-16 aircraft serve as nuclear carriers within the framework of NATO joint nuclear missions, Lavrov said.

Ukraine can build a dirty bomb

It is believed that Ukraine has a scientific base that can be used to build a "dirty bomb". The explosion of such a bomb occurs due to the detonation of explosives rather than through a nuclear rection. Yet, radioactive elements contained in the munition ensure the contamination of a certain territory with radiation.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russian radiation, chemical and biological defense troops, earlier said that such a bomb could be made at the scientific base of the Kharkiv Physics and Technology Institute. The institute used to be part of the USSR nuclear program. The institute houses the Uragan-3M closed magnetic plasma trap. Nuclear fuel imported to Ukraine can be used to build a "dirty bomb", Kirillov said.

Experts believe that Ukraine may indeed build a "dirty bomb" in a short time, but Kyiv does not have resources to develop a full-fledged nuclear weapon. The republic may still have the technology to develop nuclear weapons, but one needs to restore the entire technological process to create one, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov believes.

"They have no expertise, no materials, no equipment. The tale about creating nuclear weapons from nuclear fuel waste is a tale for the poorly educated… Ukraine is unable to build a real nuclear weapon, this is absolutely out of the question," he said.

At the same time, adviser to the President of Ukraine Dmitry Litvin said that the Bild article about Kyiv's ability to create nuclear weapons was nonsense. In turn, Ukrainian President Zelensky said at a joint briefing with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the country's authorities did not talk about plans to create nuclear weapons. Ukraine is not developing nuclear weapons, he also stressed.

After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine inherited large stockpiles of nuclear weapons. There were 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets missiles (10 warheads each) and 38 heavy bombers on the territory of the republic. The former 43rd Missile Army of the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR Armed Forces had been based in Ukraine.

By 1996, all warheads, including tactical weapons, had been removed from Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum. The document was signed to conclude lengthy negotiations regarding Soviet nuclear weapons that remained in Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. As a result, about 2,000 nuclear weapons were removed for further destruction, and silo launchers of strategic missiles were dismantled.

Details

A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device is a radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with radioactive material, serving primarily as an area denial device against civilians. It is not to be confused with a nuclear explosion, such as a fission bomb, which produces blast effects far in excess of what is achievable by the use of conventional explosives. Unlike the cloud of radiation from a typical fission bomb, a dirty bomb's radiation can be dispersed only within a few hundred meters or a few miles of the explosion. Dirty bombs have never been used, only tested. They are designed to disperse radioactive material over a certain area. They act through the effects of radioactive contamination on the environment and related health effects of radiation poisoning in the affected populations. The containment and decontamination of victims, as well as decontamination of the affected area require considerable time and expenses, rendering areas partly unusable and causing economic damage. Dirty bombs might be used to create mass panic as a weapon of terror.