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Ukraine threatens to equip itself with nuclear weapons if it fails to join a military alliance "like NATO"

April 16th

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Tensions between Ukraine, the West and Russia once again reached a milestone yesterday, when Russian authorities announced thatthey closed maritime transit in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, to all foreign military ships, effectively isolating part of the Ukrainian coast, and in particular the port of Mariupol, as well as its naval units present in the Sea of Azov. With this posture, Moscow prevents any preventive deployment of Western ships in this Sea, deployments which would be likely to pose significant problems in the event of conflict between Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, and despite a conference call between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, Washington announced a new set of sanctions against certain Russian companies and officials suspected of being involved in the poisoning of Russian opponent Alexey Navalny, in the Solarwinds cyber attack, of having interfered with the American presidential elections or of being involved in the current tensions with the 'Ukraine.

But for Kiev, the account is not there, and the Ukrainian ambassador in Germany, Andriy Melnyk, declared while questioned by a German radio, that theThe country could turn to the reconstitution of a nuclear deterrent force if he did not manage to guarantee its security by joining a strong alliance "like NATO". For the Ukrainian diplomat, the country would have no other choice, if necessary, to guarantee its security than to rearm massively, including perhaps in the nuclear field, to ensure its security. This declaration, which obviously aims to force the hand of NATO to accelerate its membership and bring Europeans and Westerners to become much more actively involved in the protection of Ukraine in the face of Russian reinforcement, does not happen without a very specific context.