Can Ukraine develop nuclear weapons? Expert estimates potential

Aviation expert, leading researcher at the State Aviation Museum Valerii Romanenko said on the Espreso TV channel.

"We are not Israel. Unfortunately, Ukraine is saturated with sympathizers of Russia, and someone would certainly betray us if such processes began. We don’t have the Negev Desert, where a separate facility for weapons development could be created. Besides, we would be detected very quickly. Developing nuclear weapons requires special equipment, including centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Iran, for example, does this in mountains and underground facilities across several sites. Ukraine doesn’t have this capability, as we advocate openness," he stated.

According to Romanenko, Ukraine has never had the technology to create nuclear weapons.

"We could produce some plutonium as a byproduct at nuclear power plants, but we handed it over. We have the raw materials. But to create a bomb, we need equipment for uranium enrichment, specialized warheads that would activate in microseconds, and could achieve the critical mass for a nuclear explosion. We have none of this. All of it would take years to develop, making this a closed topic for us. We shouldn’t have given up at least tactical nuclear weapons in 1999-2000 under President Kuchma. We could have handed over strategic missiles but instead gave Russia 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles, each capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, and 11 bombers. If we had kept even fifty of them, Moscow would know that at least three or four could reach them, and two would be enough for significant impact," the aviation expert concluded.

• On October 17, the German tabloid Bild wrote that Ukraine has the materials and knowledge to rebuild its nuclear arsenal in a few weeks.