2023-06-14 07:14:44
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announces that his country has begun receiving tactical nuclear weapons from Russia, marking the first time that Moscow has sent these warheads outside the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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The deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus came at Minsk’s urging
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that his country has begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945.
“We have missiles and bombs that we received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Russian channel “Russia-1”.
Lukashenko had confirmed earlier today that the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory came at the insistence of Minsk, stressing that his country would not hesitate “to use nuclear weapons in the event of any aggression against Belarus.”
Referring to the reasons for deploying Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he said: “We need these weapons to make sure that not a single foreign soldier sets foot on Belarusian soil again.”
This deployment began prior to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit to be held on July 11 and 12 in Lithuania bordering Belarus, which will discuss Ukraine’s candidacy to join the alliance.
On May 25, the Russian and Belarusian defense ministers signed documents outlining the procedures for deploying non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The two countries agreed on the plan to deploy short-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, provided that the missiles remain under Russian command.
On April 4, Belarusian soldiers began training in Russia to use “tactical” nuclear weapons, as announced by Moscow and Minsk.
Putin had said on March 25 that he had given the green light to deploy these weapons in Belarus, and indicated that the United States had already deployed tactical nuclear weapons in a group of European countries decades ago.
Also read: Belarus: We will deploy Russian “tactical” nuclear weapons in response to Western pressure
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