The Kremlin warned Tuesday that efforts to end the war could be undermined by what Russian foreign intelligence officials claimed to be attempts by France and the United Kingdom to supply Ukraine with a nuclear weapon.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) alleged earlier Tuesday that authorities in London and Paris were covertly planning to send “components, equipment and technologies” to make a submarine-launched ballistic missile that carries a thermonuclear warhead.
The Russian spy agency, which often issues sweeping claims about supposed Western plots, suggested that the purported nuclear weapon would grant Ukraine leverage in U.S.-brokered peace talks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov highlighted the SVR’s allegations as a potential “flagrant violation of all norms and principles of international law” and a threat to the “entire non-proliferation regime.”
“This information will certainly be taken into account and considered by us during the ongoing negotiations,” Peskov told reporters, hinting that Russia may try to use the nuclear weapon accusations as its own leverage.
Talks to end the war in Ukraine remain at a deadlock as neither side has shown a willingness to agree to a compromise on the sensitive issue of territory. Russian and Ukrainian officials have met three times this year, with a fourth round of negotiations expected as soon as this week.
Russia’s upper-house Federation Council has urged British and French lawmakers to launch parliamentary investigations into the SVR’s nuclear weapon claims.
“London and Paris cannot fail to know that Russia’s nuclear doctrine regards aggression by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear power will be regarded as their joint attack,” the Federation Council said in a statement.
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