(CNN) Russia plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.
Moscow will complete construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by early July, Putin told state broadcaster Russia 1.
He said Moscow has already transferred to Belarus an Iskander short-range missile system, a device that can be equipped with nuclear or conventional warheads.
During the interview, Putin said Russia has helped Belarus convert 10 planes so they could carry tactical nuclear warheads and will begin training pilots to fly the reconfigured planes early next month.
Belarus, lying west of Russia on Ukraine’s long northern border, is one of Moscow’s closest allies. It helped Russia launch its first invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing Kremlin troops to invade the country from the north.
Throughout the conflict there have been fears that Belarus will again be used as a launching pad for an offensive or that Minsk’s own troops will join the conflict.
Putin’s comments in Saturday’s interview build on comments made at a joint press conference with Lukashenko in Minsk in December, when the Russian leader said Moscow was training Belarusian pilots to fly jets capable of carrying a “special warhead.”
During that conference, Lukashenko told the Russian leader: “Today we deployed the S-400 [air defense] system that you transferred to Belarus on combat readiness, and above all the Iskander system that you also handed over to us after promising half a year ago.”
Belarus has not had nuclear weapons on its territory since the early 1990s. Shortly after gaining independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it agreed to transfer to Russia all Soviet-era weapons of mass destruction stationed there.
On several occasions since invading Ukraine more than a year ago, Putin has used escalating rhetoric, warning of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war and suggesting that Moscow could abandon its “No First Use” policy.
But for Ukraine, these plans are a sign that Putin is “fearful of loss.”
“By making a statement about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he is admitting that he is afraid of losing and all he can do is scare with tactics,” tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the bureau’s head of the President of Ukraine, on Sunday.
Podolyak called Putin “predictable,” adding that the NPT violation again showed “his complicity in the crime.”
In his interview on Saturday, Putin said Moscow will retain control of any tactical nuclear weapons it has stationed in Belarus.
He compared the move to Washington’s practice of stationing nuclear weapons in Europe to prevent host countries like Germany from violating their commitments as non-nuclear powers.
“We will not relinquish control of nuclear weapons. The US does not give them to its allies. We’ve basically been doing the same thing (the US leadership) for a decade,” Putin said.
While there is no guarantee that Putin will go ahead with his plan to station the weapons in Belarus, any nuclear signal from him will cause concern in the West.
No evidence that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon
The State Department told CNN it would “continue to monitor” the impact of Russia’s plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, but would not adjust its nuclear weapons strategy.
“We have seen no reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear stance, nor any indication that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement to CNN.
Russia and Belarus have been discussing this arms move for some time after making several statements over the past year, another Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Previously, Washington made it clear to Putin that any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would have consequences, even low-yield tactical devices, but it purposely stopped saying exactly what that would be.
In October, US President Joe Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “It would be irresponsible for me to talk about what we would or wouldn’t do” in response to Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
But Biden hinted at the possibility of a rapid escalation of events.
“The mistakes are made, the miscalculation might occur, no one could be sure what was going to happen and it could end in Armageddon,” he said.