Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied media reports claiming that a group of scientists had sold suitcase-sized nuclear weapons to (alleged) al-Qaeda operatives, saying the reports were disinformation. Egypt’s al-Hayat newspaper, citing unnamed al-Qaeda sources in Pakistan, reported on Sunday that Ukrainian scientists had provided tactical nuclear weapons to members of the alleged terrorist group. Ministry spokesman Markian Lubkiyvskyi told reporters that the report was absolutely groundless and cause for surprise. The al-Hayat report claimed the deal for an unspecified number of suitcase bombs had been struck in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 1998. The bombs were allegedly intended for attacking American targets. Lubkiyvskyi stressed that Ukraine had no nuclear weapons in 1998 because the ex-Soviet republic had transferred all of them to Russia by June 1, 1996. All transfers were verified three times by Ukrainian and Russian officials, he added.
In 1993, Ukraine signed a pact with the United States and Russia volunteering to lay down its arsenal of some 1,900 nuclear missiles inherited from the Soviet Union. In Moscow on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Chief of Staff General Yury Baluyevsky echoed Ukrainian denial of the report. "All weapons deployed in Ukraine were taken away to Russia. I am not aware of any event in which a single warhead went missing," he said adding "All nuclear warheads are in place and not a single warhead now belonging to Russia has been sold or stolen." |