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With Trump back in White House, can Ukraine opt for nuclear deterrence?

Experts say Ukraine is capable of producing nuclear weapons as a deterrent against Russia within years, but the political costs would be too high

by Oleg Sukhov, November 6, 2024

With the looming risk that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may pull the plug on Washington’s support for Ukraine, Kyiv has flirted with the option of nuclear deterrence.

The prospect of such a scenario was raised weeks earlier when President Volodymyr Zelensky in October said he had told Trump during a September meeting in New York City that Ukraine would either join NATO or develop nuclear weapons.

Zelensky claimed that Trump had heard him and said that “it was a fair argument.”

He later walked back that statement, saying that Ukraine was not pursuing nuclear weapons.

However, Zelensky’s statement prompted speculation on whether a Ukrainian nuclear weapons program is realistic from technological and political standpoints.

Experts say that Ukraine is capable of producing at least a primitive nuclear weapon within years, although it would require considerable investment.

November 8, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Ukraine, weapons and war