MANIPULATION: Ukraine is working on restoring nuclear weapons — Oxford University professor

Information is being spread online, allegedly that Oxford University professor Vlad Mykhnenko stated that Ukraine is working on nuclear weapons. The post cited his words: “Ukraine is conducting secret work to restore nuclear weapons. It has everything necessary for this, including plutonium production.”

However, this is manipulation. Mykhnenko said that perhaps in the future Ukraine would try to develop nuclear weapons. But this was his subjective opinion, not supported by facts.

On June 17, 2025, the YouTube channel Times Radio published an interview with Vlad Mykhnenko, professor of geography and political economy at the University of Oxford. In the conversation, he stated that the US is currently reducing aid to Ukraine. Mykhnenko also noted that his relatives in the Armed Forces of Ukraine feel abandoned and believe that Ukrainians should rely only on themselves.

“And therefore I think every day that Ukraine is losing support, every day internally the conversation is going towards the development of nuclear weapons. And I think, I am afraid, that this is inevitable, that Ukraine will start to probably try to develop it as soon as possible. Given that Western partners are abandoning Ukraine, and European leaders are not providing enough assistance,” Mykhnenko said. That is, he said that Ukraine may consider this option in the future. At the same time, the speaker did not provide any arguments or evidence that such developments are already being carried out.

Then the interviewer added that this would be logical, since it was Ukrainian scientists who in Soviet times helped develop nuclear weapons. “So the expertise to create nuclear weapons exists in Ukraine. With the nuclear energy that is available (in Ukraine — ed.), reactors of this type can certainly produce enriched uranium,” the journalist said. He added that Ukraine has all the means to assemble the elements of a nuclear warhead and make it.

Immediately after this remark, the interviewer asked Mykhnenko whether he thought Ukraine was trying to develop such weapons. To which the professor replied: “Ukraine still has the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant, which operates in the western part of Ukraine. The Zaporizhzhia (NPP — ed.) is obviously out of question now, but there are still nuclear stations operating in Ukraine which are capable of producing plutonium, as you correctly said. And I can hear kind of conversations among MPs, kind of starting mentioning nuclear option much more often than before. So I presume that this is really a no-brainer,” the speaker said.

However, according to Serhii Halaka, a specialist in nuclear non-proliferation, Ukraine does not have the materials to develop nuclear weapons. The country does not produce highly enriched uranium and does not enrich plutonium, which are necessary for producing such weapons. Ukraine disposed of its stock of highly enriched uranium back in 2012. And in the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi NPP reactors, low-enriched uranium at the level of 3–5% are used, which is not suitable for creating nuclear weapons. Moreover, Ukraine does not have the infrastructure to process spent nuclear fuel, so it cannot reuse it.

Thus, the information about Ukraine allegedly manufacturing nuclear weapons is the professor’s subjective opinion, only his assumption.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly denied rumors about allegedly restoring the nuclear arsenal, insisting on Ukraine’s compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In addition, if such work were really being carried out, most likely the intelligence of other countries would learn about it. As happened with Iran and North Korea, which initially did not officially declare their plans to develop a nuclear program. However, US intelligence uncovered these plans.

Earlier we refuted the fake that Ukraine was allegedly preparing to restore its nuclear potential and that the US supposedly handed over nuclear weapons to Ukraine but took them back after threats from Russia.