Authorization by the United States and United Kingdom for Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russian territory has led to nuclear saber-rattling from Putin, with Moscow firing missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads into Ukraine.
The Biden administration's recent decision to approve the use of ATACMS missiles, which have a range of 190 miles, led to accusations that Washington was escalating tensions between Russia and the West. The British government permitted the use of Storm Shadow missiles, capable of reaching 155 miles.
As this new authorization made headlines, conservative voices online began sharing claims that the White House was considering giving Kyiv back nuclear weapons that it gave up in the mid-1990s.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by "independent journalist" Kyle Becker, posted on November 25, 2024, viewed 360,800 times, said: "BOMBSHELL.🚨
"The New York Times buries in a report that the Biden administration is considering the return of Nuclear Weapons to Ukraine.
"'So U.S. and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.
"'Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications.'
"The nuclear brinksmanship is being framed as an act of "deterrence," but it would drastically escalate the conflict.
"Moscow is sure to consider such an action as a betrayal of Post-Soviet agreements and a direct provocation.
"Russian president Vladimir Putin recently lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons; a major attack on Russia with conventional missiles, drones or aircraft could trigger a nuclear response.
"The Biden administration can't leave office soon enough."
The Facts
This claim was repeated by conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Jack Posobiec.
In a post on X, with an accompanying video, Jones wrote: "End Of The World Alert! The Biden Administration Is Proposing The Transfer Of Nuclear Weapons To Ukraine To Be Used Against Russia!
"This Constitutes The Largest & Most Dangerous Nuclear Escalation In History!"
However, the New York Times report does not state the degree of sincerity or effort that the Biden administration or other U.S. officials have treated these discussions, the sources of the claim remaining unnamed.
As was posted by Kyle Becker, it said that "Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union." It does not state which officials said this or if the issue had been escalated or discussed with White House Cabinet members.
Discussions may or may not have happened, but claims from Jones and others that the transfer of any weapons would be with the intention of deployment, not deterrence, have not been repeated.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House told Newsweek: "This is not true—the United States is not considering giving nuclear weapons to Ukraine."
Furthermore, it is understood the U.S. does not possess any former Soviet nuclear weaponry taken from Ukraine after the Cold War.
Newsweek has contacted The New York Times via email for comment.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, thousands of nuclear arms were abandoned in Ukraine, leaving Kyiv at the time with the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Trilateral discussions began in 1993 involving America, Russia, and Ukraine, as Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union. These discussions led to the Trilateral statement agreeing Ukraine would transfer nuclear weaponry to Russia for dismantlement in exchange for security assurances, as stated by the Brookings Institute.
The Budapest Memorandum, a further multilateral agreement affirming Ukraine's security and sovereignty in exchange for giving up the nuclear stocks following its accession to the treaty, was signed in December.
The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Russia were among the signatories, as were Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Under the agreement, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine became the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, leaving their nuclear arsenals to Russia for dismantlement.
The Trilateral Statement and the Budapest Memorandum led to the complete elimination of Ukraine's nuclear weapon stock. Ukraine transferred the last of its nuclear warheads for dismantlement in 1996 and its last strategic nuclear delivery vehicle was taken apart in 2001.
Newsweek spoke to Mariana Budjeryn, a senior research associate at The Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School, which conducts and shares "policy-relevant research on nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, and nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament", to explain the history.
"All nuclear warheads that were in Ukraine at the time of the Soviet dissolution were transported to Russia, where they were dismantled at the same facilities that assembled them, under Ukrainian monitoring and verification..." Budjeryn said.
"All warheads from Ukraine—as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan—have been accounted for.
"The US only helped negotiate the nuclear disarmament deal with Ukraine and also provided technical assistance funds under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act of 1991 (also known as the Nunn-Lugar Program) for some of the equipment to transport the warheads (Kevlar blankets) but mostly to dismantle launch vehicles: missiles, missile silos, and strategic bombers."
Professor Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University, told Newsweek that the U.S. sending nuclear weapons to a non-nuclear state would violate the 1968 non-proliferation treaty.
"In theory the U.S. could station U.S. nuclear weapons in Ukraine and maintain command authority of them, like it does in several NATO member states," Taylor said.
"But it's extremely difficult to imagine that happening."
Professor Neil MacFarlane, an emeritus fellow at the University of Oxford's St Anne's College, a specialist in Russian foreign policy and regional dynamics of the former Soviet Union, told Newsweek that while Ukraine has the "the scientific capacity and the raw materials to produce nuclear weapons" it would "probably take a couple of years."
In October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was not pursuing nuclear weapons, walking back a statement he made to President-elect Donald Trump earlier that month saying his country would either join NATO or develop such weaponry.
"U.S. nuclear weapons were never in Ukraine, so how could they be returned?" MacFarlane added.
Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have been seen by some as a violation of the terms of the Budapest memorandum.
Former President Bill Clinton said he felt a "personal stake" over the war in Ukraine for negotiating with Kyiv to surrender its weapons.
"I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons," Clinton told Irish broadcaster RTÉ in 2003. "None of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons."
In October, Zelensky said how his country needed NATO, pointing to the history of the Budapest Memorandum and the Trilateral Statement.
At a European Council summit in Brussels, Zelensky said: "Which of these major nuclear powers suffered? All of them? No. Ukraine (did).
"Who gave up nuclear weapons? All of them? No. Ukraine. Who is fighting today? Ukraine. Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons and that will be our protection or we should have some sort of alliance. Apart from NATO, today we do not know any effective alliances."
He added: "NATO countries are not at war. People are all alive in NATO countries. And thank God. That is why we choose NATO. Not nuclear weapons."
The Ruling
False.
The claim that the Biden administration was considering giving nuclear weapons back to Ukraine was based on quotes from unnamed U.S. and European officials in a New York Times article. The article does not name the Biden administration, say whether the plans are being considered by top leadership, or what the terms of their use, in theory, would be.
It is understood that the U.S. does not possess any nuclear weapons taken from Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Under the Budapest Memorandum and the Trilateral Statement, Ukraine gave its Soviet nuclear stockpile to Russia for dismantlement in exchange for security assurances signed by the U.S., the U.K., and Russia.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
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