Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko said Thursday that his country would not deploy NATO nuclear weapons after joining NATO.

It "would not happen" that Ukraine would allow deployment of any NATO nuclear weapons after joining NATO, said Gritsenko.

"We voluntarily renounced the status of the nuclear force, why then we would allow the deployment of someone else's nuclear weapons," he said.

Ukraine inherited the third largest nuke arsenals when the former Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

It announced giving up all nuclear weapons and finished the handover of nuclear warheads to Russia in 1996.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko set 2008 as a target date for joining NATO. Ukraine is already a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

Source: Xinhua