Zelenskyy denies Russia's claims of Ukraine planning chemical attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied all such allegations!

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied Russia's accusations that Ukraine is planning chemical attacks. "Ukraine did not develop any bio-chemical weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction," Zelenskyy was quoted by reports as saying.

Zelenskyy said, "I am the President of an adequate country and an adequate people. And the father of two children. No chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction were developed on my land.

Zelenskyy added, ``the whole world knows this," "And if Russia does something similar against us, it will receive the most severe sanctions response ever."

Zelenskyy's statement came after Russian media reported that Ukraine was close to building a plutonium-based "dirty bomb" nuclear weapon. These reports cited an unnamed source who gave no evidence to support the claim.

"Ukraine was developing nuclear weapons at the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was shut down in 2000," Russian news agencies had quoted "a representative of a competent body" as said last week.

On Friday, Zelenskyy said, "This worries me very much...If you do something like that against us, you will receive the most severe sanctions."

Earlier, the Ukraine government had said it has no plans to re-join the nuclear club, having given up its nuclear arms in 1994 following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, in an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, Zelenskyy called President Vladimir Putin's nuclear threat "a bluff".

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that it was unlikely that Putin would resort to nuclear weapons. "It's one thing to be a murderer. It's another to be suicidal," he added.

Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with the aim to "demilitarise" and "denazify" it’s pro-Western neighbour and prevent Kyiv from joining NATO.

The West, dismissing that rationale as a pretext, has responded with harsh sanctions on Moscow and heavy military and other aid to Kyiv.

On Thursday, Russian forces kept up their bombardment of the port city of Mariupol.

They also attacked schools, buildings and institutions in Ukrainian cities.

International condemnation escalated over an airstrike in Mariupol a day earlier that killed three people at a maternity hospital. Western and Ukrainian officials called the attack a war crime.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian refusal to permit evacuations from the port city amounted to "outright terror."