Russia to relocate some tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus
Russia has reportedly reached an agreement with neighboring Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory, the Tass news agency told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin said in comments broadcast on state TV on Saturday.
“We agreed with Lukashenko that we would place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating the non-proliferation regime,” Putin said according to TASS.
Russia's tactical nuclear weapons could arrive in Belarus as early as this summer, Putin said. Moscow is completing the construction of a specialized depot for such weapons, following repeated requests from Minsk to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.
The storage site for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be ready by July 1, according to the Russian presidency. Putin also said that Moscow does not intend to cede control of any tactical nuclear weapons to Minsk, but that it will limit itself to deploying its weapons on Belarusian territory, maintaining control over it.
He did not specify when exactly the weapons will be transported to the new depot.
Bloomberg reports that Russia has already deployed 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, while Putin noted that short-range Iskander missiles – capable of carrying nuclear warheads – have also been sent to Belarus and that the Crew training will begin on April 3.
There has yet been no response from Washington to Putin's statement, but Putin said such a move would not violate nuclear non-proliferation agreements, noting that the United States has "long since deployed its tactical nuclear weapons on of allied countries".
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The article Russia will redeploy some tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus comes from Scenarios Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-russia-ricollochera-alcune-armi-nucleari-tattiche-in-bielorussia/ on Sun, 26 Mar 2023 07:00:11 +0000.