Ukraine had no plans to become a nuclear weapons state again, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

"Ukraine has never planned and is not planning to renew its nuclear status," Foreign Ministry spokesman Eugene Perebiynis told reporters.

Perebiynis' remarks came after some lawmakers from the pro-government UDAR and Fatherland parties introduced a bill to parliament last week, calling on Ukraine to exit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in response to Crimea's accession to Russia.

In 1994, Kiev signed the Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine gave up the world's third-largest nuclear weapons stockpile in exchange for a guarantee for its sovereignty and unity.

Russia, the United States and Britain, as guarantors of the treaty, are obliged not to use force against Kiev and mediate if a threat to Ukraine's territorial integrity arises. Russia has rejected claims that it violated the Budapest Memorandum. Endi

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