Bill Clinton admits ‘terrible’ mistake in forcing Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons

Bill Clinton has confessed that he made a “terrible” mistake in forcing Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in 1994.

The disgraced former president, whose term was marred by a sex scandal involving a White House intern, demanded that Kiev surrender its nuclear weapons in a deal with Moscow.

But in a rare show of humility, Clinton admitted that the illegal invasion of Russia would never have happened if the Ukrainians had been allowed to keep their nuclear deterrent.

“I feel terrible about it because Ukraine is a very important country and I feel a personal interest in getting them to give up their nuclear weapons,” he told Irish network RTE.

“None of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had its weapons,” the 76-year-old added.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, re-independent Ukraine had the world’s third-largest atomic arsenal with some 1,900 warheads.

The international agreement to give them up was made in January 1994 with then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin.

The deal also included commitments from the Kremlin to respect Ukrainian independence.

But those commitments were first ignored by Vladimir Putin when he conquered Crimea and the eastern Donbas region in 2014.

Clinton said Putin never intended to honor the deal he struck in Moscow with Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine’s then-president Leonid Kravchuk.

The Russian tyrant rejected them again when he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

“I knew that President Putin did not support President Yeltsin’s agreement never to interfere with Ukraine’s territorial boundaries — an agreement he made because he wanted Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons,” Clinton said.

“They were afraid to give them up because they thought that was the only thing that protected them from an expansionist Russia,” he added.

And in a thinly veiled swipe at prospective Republican nominee Donald Trump, the two-year ex-commander-in-chief said taxpayers should continue to support Kiev’s armed forces.

Clinton, seen here at a White House event with Joe Biden in February, told Ireland’s RTE network that Washington should support Ukraine and its effort to expel Russian invaders from its territory

Joe Biden’s administration has pumped more than $77 billion in financial aid to the war-torn country, according to the German think tank the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

But that has angered some Republican lawmakers, who say those sums would be better spent at home fighting crime and illegal immigration.

“I think what Putin did was very wrong, and I think Europe and the United States should continue to support Ukraine,” Clinton said.

“There may come a time when the Ukrainian government thinks they can come up with a peace deal they can live with, but I don’t think the rest of us should go into that,” he added.

Earlier this year, Trump said he had an “easy negotiating strategy” to end the conflict within 24 hours, but refused to be swayed by the details of his peace plan.

Trump has hinted he would force Ukraine to the negotiating table if the war is not over by the end of next year’s presidential election.

“If it is not resolved, I will have it resolved within 24 hours with (President Volodymyr) Zelensky and with Putin, and it has been negotiated very easily,” he told Fox News last month.

The real estate tycoon, who was charged with 34 felonies in Manhattan on Tuesday, has also said supporting Ukraine is not a vital US strategic interest.

“Therefore, Europe should pay much more than we do, or be equal,” he said.

DailyMail.com has approached the Ukrainian government for comment.