London and Paris are plotting to secretly help Kiev build a nuclear device, according to Russia's foreign intelligence service

The UK and France are planning to arm Ukraine with a nuclear weapon to ensure its conflict with Russia is not settled in US-backed peace talks, senior Russian diplomat Gennady Gatilov told RT in an interview on Friday.

Earlier this week, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused London and Paris of plotting to transfer the necessary components, technology, and equipment needed to develop a nuclear weapon or so-called 'dirty bomb'.

The plans were specifically timed to undermine the trilateral Russian-US-Ukrainian peace talks, according to Gatilov, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva. He argued that Kiev's Western European backers have been increasingly "angered" by Russia's advances on the battlefield.

"This period was certainly not chosen by chance... there were truly important trilateral negotiations taking place," he said.

The UK, France and Ukraine's other European sponsors were "essentially sidelined... which is causing them discontent, extreme discontent," he said.

The diplomat cited the example of the failed 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, which were ostensibly intended to reconcile the post-coup government in Kiev with anti-Maidan forces in Ukraine's east. Germany and France were guarantors of the accords. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande later admitted that the accords had been exploited to stall for time and allow Kiev to rearm.

According to Gatilov, from the early stages of the Ukraine conflict, France and the UK have played an "important role" in turning the country into what he called an "anti-Russia project."

When asked if the alleged nuclear handover plot by London and Paris would strengthen Kiev's negotiation position in the peace talks, the diplomat said no.

"Any attempt to strengthen Ukraine's position by supplying it with a dirty bomb or any other components will not lead to any results," he said. "On the contrary... this will worsen the political situation and complicate the search for a political solution to the problem."