Trump's Withdrawal of Ukraine Military Aid Could Spark Nuclear War With Russia — As Zelensky May Order Rushed Construction of 'Fat Man' Bomb
Donald Trump withdrawing military aid to Ukraine could lead the country to creating a nuclear bomb.
Nov. 15 2024, Published 7:20 p.m. ET
Donald Trump's potential withdrawal of military aid for Ukraine has sparked fears of a nuclear war.
RadarOnline.com can reveal a report prepared for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence detailed how to the country could a develop a rudimentary nuclear bomb within months to use against Russia if the president-elect stopped crucial aid.
The report stated Ukraine could build a device using plutonium, similar to technology the U.S. used to develop the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
Trump potentially ending military aid for Ukraine could lead the country to developing a nuclear bomb.
According to the Times, the report stated: "Creating a simple atomic bomb, as the United States did within the framework of the Manhattan Project, would not be a difficult task 80 years later."
Amid the ongoing war with Russia, Ukraine would be unable to swiftly build and operate large facilities needed to enrich uranium; however, the country could extract plutonium from fuel rods harvested from Ukraine's nuclear reactors.
A report said Ukraine could use plutonium to create a bomb similar to the 'Fat Man' used by the U.S. in 1945.
Currently Ukraine controls nine operational reactors.
The report continued: "The weight of reactor plutonium available to Ukraine can be estimated at seven tons … A significant nuclear weapons arsenal would require much less material … the amount of material is sufficient for hundreds of warheads with a tactical yield of several kilotons."
Should Ukraine opt to develop their own rudimentary nuclear bomb using plutonium, the report's authors believed it would have about one tenth of the power of the U.S.'s "Fat Man".
Trump claimed he can end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office.
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While the potential bomb would be far less significant than the one developed and used by the U.S. in 1945, the report claimed it "would be enough to destroy an entire Russian airbase or concentrated military, industrial or logistics installations."
The report added: "The exact nuclear yield would be unpredictable because it would use different isotopes of plutonium."
In October, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Trump his country needed nuclear weapons to guarantee Ukraine's security if they were not allowed to join NATO.
Zelensky later clarified he meant there was no other security alternative guarantee as Ukrainian government officials denied they were considering nuclear rearmament.
Kyiv officials have not endorsed the report.
Another issue laid out in the briefing was the legal basis for Ukraine pulling out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
It stated: "The violation of the memorandum by the nuclear-armed Russian Federation provides formal grounds for withdrawal from the NPT and moral reasons for reconsideration of the non-nuclear choice made in early 1994."
The ratification of the NPT was contingent on security guarantees given by the U.S., U.K. and Russia in the 1994 Budapest memorandum. Under the agreement, Ukraine surrendered its 1,734 strategic nuclear warheads in exchange for protection.
The briefing was authored by Oleksii Yizhak – the head of department at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, which provides research and advises the president and National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine – and was published by influential military think-tank the Centre for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies.
So far, Kyiv officials have not endorsed the briefing.
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