
Nuclear Accusations Fly, Ukraine Invokes Budapest Memorandum
The accusations of a Ukrainian nuclear plot came over the weekend of October 22-23, generating a flurry of phone calls between Russian and western officials on Sunday and Monday.

The accusations of a Ukrainian nuclear plot came over the weekend of October 22-23, generating a flurry of phone calls between Russian and western officials on Sunday and Monday.

By showing his cards, the French president allowed the opponent to anticipate much more easily what the reactions to a new initiative would be and the risks involved.

Ukrainian President Zelensky was recorded calling upon NATO to consider “preemptive strikes” against Russia, rather than “waiting for the nuclear strikes first” and then retaliating.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that his country’s status as a nuclear-armed state had now become “irreversible,” and that no amount of sanctions would force him to destroy his nuclear arsenal.

The Belarusian leader touted his country’s fighter jets, now retrofitted with nuclear weapons. While Belarus has no nuclear arsenal of its own, after a referendum held earlier this year, it receives nuclear weaponry from its Russian ally.

There are clear indications that the reductions that have characterised global nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War have ended.