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Ukraine Wants Nuclear Weapons: Will the West Bow to the Regime in Kiev?

December 13, 2018

Ukraine Wants Nuclear Weapons: Will the West Bow to the Regime in Kiev?

Ukraine Wants Nuclear Weapons: Will the West Bow to the Regime in Kiev?

Efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation are one of the few issues on which the great powers agree, intending to continue to limit the spread of nuclear weapons and to prevent new entrants into the exclusive nuclear club.

The former Ukrainian envoy to NATO, Major General Petro Garashchuk, recently stated in an interview with Obozrevatel TV:

“I’ll say it once more. We have the ability to develop and produce our own nuclear weapons, currently available in the world, such as the one that was built in the former USSR and which is now in independent Ukraine, located in the city of Dnipro (former Dnipropetrovsk) that can produce these kinds of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Neither the United States, nor Russia, nor China have produced a missile named Satan … At the same time, Ukraine does not have to worry about international sanctions when creating these nuclear weapons.”

The issue of nuclear weapons has always united the great powers, especially following the signing of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The decision to reduce the number of nuclear weapons towards the end of the Cold War went hand in hand with the need to prevent the spread of such weapons of mass destruction to other countries in the best interests of humanity. During the final stages of the Cold War, the scientific community expended great effort on impressing upon the American and Soviet leadership how a limited nuclear exchange would wipe out humanity. Moscow and Washington thus began START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) negotiations to reduce the risk of a nuclear winter. Following the dissolution of the USSR, the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances persuaded Ukraine to relinquish its nuclear weapons and accede to the NPT in exchange for security assurances from its signatories.

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We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now

October 26, 2018

We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now

Climate breakdown is an imminent threat to humanity. But an international treaty could avert calamity

Brown coal power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Brown coal power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia. ‘Currently global demand for coal, oil and gas are all growing, with fossil fuels accounting for 81% of energy use.’ Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

How did government respond to the recent scientific conclusion that only “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” can deliver the globally agreed target for stopping climate breakdown? In the UK, fracking for fossil fuelswas given the green light, plans were announced for a huge new road in the south-east, incentives for electric vehicles withered, the expansion of Heathrow airport is still going ahead and Gatwick airport is trying to expand too by bringing a back-up runway into use. It’s like seeing a sign that says “Danger: vertical cliff drop” and pulling on your best running shoes to take a flying leap.

Something isn’t working. The head of the oil company Shell responded to the new climate science warming by clarifying that “Shell’s core business is, and will be for the foreseeable future, very much in oil and gas.” BP announced new North Sea oil projects. Immediate choices are being made with blank disregard to avoiding climate breakdown.

A new line in the sand is needed to underpin the existing climate agreement, to exert influence over the immediate choices of policymakers. At the very least, the science should mandate a moratorium in rich countries on any further expansion of the fossil fuel industry, or any infrastructure dependent on it. Currently, global demand for coal, oil and gas are all growing, with fossil fuels accounting for 81% of energy use. Worryingly, the International Energy Agency projects total fossil fuel use rising for decades still to come, smashing all climate targets.

US deployment of new B61-12 nukes to Europe would violate non-proliferation treaty – Moscow

August 29, 2017

US deployment of new B61-12 nukes to Europe would violate non-proliferation treaty – Moscow

US deployment of new B61-12 nukes to Europe would violate non-proliferation treaty – Moscow
© AiirSource Military / YouTube
Washington will violate its commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty if it deploys the new B61-12 nuclear bombs to NATO allies in Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned. The statement comes after the recent second test of the weapon.

“The most recent variations of the B61-12 bombs are also designed for deployment to the territory of a number of NATO countries in Europe for use as part of the so-called nuclear missions involving pilots from the alliance’s non-nuclear member-states,” the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, Mikhail Ulyanov, told TASS news agency.

READ MORE: NATO eyes long-term breach of nuke non-proliferation treaty, Russia to respond – senior diplomat

“According to our assessment, this runs counter to the NPT [the Non-Proliferation Treaty] commitments,” the Russian diplomat said on Tuesday after the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced it had conducted the second successful flight test of B61-12 gravity nuclear bombs in Nevada.

Read more

FILE PHOTO: An Air Force F-16C dropped an inert B61-12 during a development flight test by the 422nd Flight Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada, on March 14, 2017 © U.S. Air ForceUS holds 2nd test of B61-12 gravity nuclear bombs

Ulyanov recalled his previous doubts about the upgraded weapon, which he says could “lower the threshold of using nuclear weapons.”

“US military specialists claim that this bomb will be more ethical and more usable, because it has greater accuracy and results in less catastrophic effects for civilians if used on vast areas,” Ulyanov said.

“This prompts the conclusion that when they go operational, such bombs may objectively lower the threshold of using nuclear weapons. We see this as the key negative effect of the ongoing upgrade work.”

The US has repeatedly accused Russia of NPT violations to cover the upgrade of its own nuclear arsenal, the diplomat believes.

“There is such a feeling that these accusations serve also as a smoke screen to modernize rather dangerous US potential,” Ulyanov stated.

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