What kind of nuclear weapons do Britain and France have? What you need to know

According to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Britain and France may secretly transfer an atomic or "dirty" bomb to Ukraine. The escalation of the conflict will disrupt the process of peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine, which is one of the goals of the European Union. What nuclear potential France and Great Britain have and what their attempt to transfer nuclear weapons to Ukraine may lead to — in the Izvestia article.

France's nuclear arsenal

France is the only EU country that possesses nuclear weapons. In order to maintain control over its nuclear arsenal, the republic even withdrew from NATO. In 1958, French President Charles de Gaulle, dissatisfied with the leading role of the United States in the alliance, sent a memorandum to the United States and Great Britain stating that NATO no longer met the country's defense needs, and in 1967, the French army and navy ceased to obey NATO, and the allied forces left the territory of the state.

It was during this period that France was developing its own nuclear bomb, the first tests of which took place in 1960 in the French colony in Algeria, in the Sahara Desert. In 2009, France restored membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, but refused to join the NATO nuclear planning committee — the country has its own doctrine of nuclear deterrence. Thus, the French nuclear arsenal is not subordinate to the EU or NATO.

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• From the point of view of France's military doctrine, nuclear weapons are designed to deter potential aggression against the country and protect France's vital interests. At the same time, there is no description of national interests in the doctrine, and the basis for carrying out nuclear strikes is determined by the President of the Republic. France's nuclear arsenal for 2019 consisted of 40 land-based ballistic missiles, ten missiles launched from Rafale fighter jets and 240 missiles designed to be launched from submarines.

The Arsenal of Great Britain

• The UK's own nuclear weapons are currently represented only by Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The United Kingdom is a member of NATO, and American ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads of the air-to-ground system for American F-35A strike fighters are also deployed on its territory as part of cooperation within the alliance.

• According to the doctrine, only the Prime Minister of the kingdom can authorize the use of British nuclear weapons, even if they are used by NATO as a retaliatory strike. Despite the fact that the strategy and objectives of the strikes are determined in cooperation with the United States, the UK launches missiles independently. The exact stocks of British missiles are classified, but in 2021, the British government ordered to raise the upper limit of the arsenal accumulation from 225 to 260 nuclear warheads.

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The risks of transferring nuclear weapons to Ukraine

• If nuclear weapons are transferred to Ukraine, France and the United Kingdom will violate international law and fundamental UN agreements, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017) and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), which is also the basis of IAEA safeguards and binding for all NATO member states to sign. Not to mention that such actions would pose a security threat to the entire world.

• It may not be about arming Ukraine with ready-made nuclear warheads, the movement of which would be difficult to conceal, but about transferring technology and components for the production of their own nuclear weapons in order to present this as an independent development of Ukrainians. Such a technology transfer is easier to implement, but it will pose a security threat, including to the European Union itself, since due to the high level of corruption in Ukraine, technologies and elements for the production of nuclear weapons may fall into the possession of terrorist groups and countries unfriendly to the EU.

• Ukraine gained independence through the declaration on nuclear-weapon-free status on July 16, 1990, later this intention was enshrined in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, which, along with Russia and Ukraine, was signed by the United States and Great Britain. The loss of Kiev's nuclear-weapon-free status may be negatively perceived by the United States and make the country the target of American sanctions, which, in the context of the ongoing conflict, will be a severe blow to the country.