Tactical Nuclear Weapons 'Already There' in Ukraine: Russian State TV

A guest on Russian state TV said that he believes Ukraine has received tactical nuclear weapons from the West.

The unevidenced suggestion was floated by Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information, a pro-Kremlin think tank, on state TV channel Russia-1. He said he believes that the delivery of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had long lobbied for, indicates that tactical nuclear weapons have already been delivered to the war-torn country.

There is no evidence to suggest that the Ukrainians have been sent nuclear weapons by the West. Newsweek has contacted Ukraine's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

Zelensky on Sunday confirmed the arrival of F-16s to his country, more than two years into the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"First of all, [F-16s] are already there and I am sure that tactical nuclear weapons are already there. Unfortunately, practice shows that when they announce [something], it happened several months ago," said Mukhin, Russian investigative site Agentstvo reported on Tuesday.

Ukraine has been free of nuclear weapons since it gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees from Russia and U.S. as part of the Budapest memorandum. Despite this, pro-Kremlin media and officials have floated the nuclear weapons narrative multiple times since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

Another guest on the show, Konstantin Zatulin, a member of the country's ruling United Russia party, disagreed with Mukhin.

"I think they are trying to catch us by the tongue, since we have already managed to say that we will perceive the appearance of the F-16 as a nuclear threat... But I am sure that they certainly have not crossed the threshold associated with the provision of tactical nuclear weapons," Zatulin said.

The Kremlin has vowed to shoot down the Ukraine's Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets, while simultaneously asserting that it doesn't believe they will turn the tide in the war.

Russia, meanwhile, has been conducting nuclear weapons drills for weeks, saying it is doing so because it was triggered by provocative statements and threats from Western countries supporting Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on July 31 that it had kick-started the third stage of its tactical nuclear weapons drills, which began in May.

The first stage involved the "practical testing of the preparation and use of nonstrategic nuclear weapons" in the country's Southern Military District, and the second stage began in June alongside Belarusian troops.

The third stage of Putin's drills involve Russia's Southern and Central Military Districts, and are aimed at "preparing units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the combat use of nonstrategic nuclear weapons," the ministry said.

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