On May 20, 2021, Permanent Representative of Ukraine in Geneva Yurii Klymenko took part in the thematic debate of the Conference on Disarmament "Prevention of Nuclear War and other Related Issues."

The Permanent Representative of Ukraine drew attention to the significant contribution by Ukraine to the global efforts for nuclear disarmament, as well as the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security.

Yurii Klymenko expressed serious concern over the development of new types of nuclear weapons by the Russian Federation, which are not covered by the recently prolonged Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III).

Along the way, he focused on the constant threat to Ukraine on its eastern borders, in particular, given the continuing significant concentration of Russian combat units that may be armed with tactical nuclear weapons, as well as absence of an actual withdrawal of the Russian military contingent from the borders of our state, recalling the thesis of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on “withdrawal without withdrawal”.

The Permanent Representative of Ukraine seriously criticized the upgrading of the Russian military presence in Crimea, in particular with nuclear capabilities, thus undermining the official non-nuclear status of the Ukrainian peninsula.

Having touched upon the issue of lack of trust as a necessary precondition to achieve further nuclear disarmament and risk reduction, first of all in the context of violation by the Russian Federation of the Budapest memorandum, Y.Klymenko reiterated the need to adopt a legally binding-instrument on the negative security assurances, which would contain a mechanism for effective support in case of aggression by one of the nuclear states.

The Ukrainian delegation aligned itself with the EU statement on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.