The Russian Federation is actively building up its nuclear potential on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula, undermining the nuclear-free status of the Ukrainian state, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmitry Kuleba, during a speech at the high-level segment of the 2021 Conference on Disarmament.
As the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports, the diplomat noted that Russia's actions undermine the architecture of global security, as they violate a number of international documents related, in particular, to weapons of mass destruction.
"Russia's hybrid aggression against Ukraine undermines the architecture of global security, built on the following main international documents, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxic Weapons and Their Destruction, the Convention on the Prohibition or restrictions on the use of specific types of conventional weapons, which can be considered to cause excessive damage or have indiscriminate action," Kuleba emphasized.
The diplomat noted that Ukraine is ready to contribute to the restoration of the effective work of the conference, in particular to take an active part in the development of the Treaty on Prohibition of the Production of Fissile Materials for Nuclear Weapons or Materials for Other Nuclear Explosive Devices.
He also expressed Ukraine's readiness to participate in the creation of a universal document that would provide effective security guarantees for non-nuclear states that are parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
At the same time, Kuleba urged those present to consider the temporary occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and Russia's resolution of the armed conflict in certain areas of the Donbass as a threat to its military expansion to the east and south of the European continent.
