MOSCOW (Archyde.com) – Belarusian air force crews have completed training in the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, as part of Russia’s plan to deploy such weapons on the territory of its ally Belarus amid fighting in neighboring Ukraine.
The ministry published a video clip in which a Belarusian pilot said that the training course in Russia had given the crews of the Su-25 attack aircraft of the Belarusian Air Force the necessary skills to use weapons.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last month that Moscow plans to deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.
This was another attempt by the Kremlin leader to brandish a nuclear weapon to dissuade the West from supporting Ukraine.
Russia has a union agreement with Belarus that provides for close political, economic and military ties.
And Russian forces used Belarusian territory to incursion into Ukraine from the north in February 2022 and maintained a presence in Belarus.
Deploying Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will bring it closer to potential targets in Ukraine and NATO members in Eastern and Central Europe.
Belarus shares a 1,250-kilometer border with NATO member states Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
These weapons are intended to destroy enemy forces on the battlefield, and have a relatively short range and much less power compared to the nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles capable of wiping out entire cities.
Putin said that construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus by July 1.
Russia has also helped modernize Belarusian warplanes to carry nuclear weapons and supplied the country with short-range Iskander missiles that can be equipped with a nuclear warhead.