17 that he had told ex-President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in the election facing off against Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket, that Ukraine would either join NATO or develop nuclear weapons. Later the same day, he walked back that statement, saying that Ukraine was not planning to create a nuclear bomb as a deterrent against Russia’s full-scale invasion now in its third year."Zelensky mentioned nuclear weapons in order to call for further commitment by NATO countries, especially from the United States, for further support for Ukraine," Kazuto Suzuki, director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at the International House of Japan, told the Kyiv Independent."He might be thinking that Ukrainian resolve to possess nuclear weapons might give an additional reason for the new U.S.