[1/3] Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko speak during a meeting at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi, Russia, June 9, 2023. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin via Portal EDITORS ATTENTION – THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY PROVIDED.
- The warehouse in Belarus should be ready for occupancy on July 7th and 8th
- Russia will be deployed as soon as the facility is ready
- Bombs will bring large parts of Eastern Europe within reach
- Lukashenko thanks Putin
MOSCOW, June 9 (Portal) – Russia will begin deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after special storage facilities are deployed on July 7-8, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. Moscow’s first move of such warheads outside of Russia since the fall of Belarus from the Soviet Union.
Putin announced in March that he had agreed to the stationing of such weapons in Belarus, citing decades of US stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in numerous European countries.
“Everything is going according to plan,” Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as he discussed the planned nuclear deployment at a meal at the Russian head of state’s summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“Preparation of the relevant facilities will end on July 7-8, and we will immediately start activities related to stationing appropriate types of weapons on your territory,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks.
Lukashenko said: “Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich.”
More than 15 months after the start of Europe’s biggest land war since World War II, the United States and its Western allies are pumping arms into Ukraine, according to Putin, as part of a widening proxy war aimed at bringing Russia to its knees.
The 70-year-old Putin describes the war as a struggle for Russia’s own survival in the face of what he sees as an ever-expanding NATO. He has warned the West that Moscow will not back down.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not rest until the last Russian soldier is expelled from his country and wants it to join NATO as soon as possible.
Putin’s nuclear move is being closely watched by both the US and its NATO allies in Europe, as well as China, which has repeatedly warned against using nuclear weapons in the conflict.
The United States has criticized Putin’s nuclear use but has said it has no intention of changing its position on strategic nuclear weapons, nor has it seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
According to Moscow and Washington, the war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in relations since the depths of the Cold War, as key nuclear arms control treaties were dissolved and both sides publicly denounced each other.
Of particular concern are Putin’s nuclear statements.
Last September, he warned the West that he was not bluffing when he said Russia would “use all available means to protect Russia and our people.”
It is still unclear where in Belarus the Russian nuclear warheads, which remain under Russian control, are stored.
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Putin, who is the final decision-maker on every nuclear launch, said the Iskander short-range mobile ballistic missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads, have already been handed over to Belarus. Russian sources say the Iskander has a range of 500 km (310 miles).
Belarus said Su-25 aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. According to Russian sources, the Sukhoi-25 jet has a range of up to 1,000 km (620 miles).
If the weapons were fired from Belarus’ main air base outside of Minsk, these delivery vehicles could potentially reach almost all of Eastern Europe – including a host of NATO members – as well as cities like Berlin and Stockholm.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States made enormous efforts to return Soviet nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to Russia – which had inherited the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal.
So far, Russia has not announced any nuclear weapons deployments outside its borders.
Putin has repeatedly raised the issue of US B61 tactical nuclear warheads stationed at bases in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey. Moscow is also unhappy with an alleged modernization of the B61, which was first tested in Nevada shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge. Edited by Kevin Liffey, Andrew Osborn and Frances Kerry
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Guy Faulconbridge