Belarus’ autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has announced the signing of a decree that would allow Russia to deploy shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons in the country.
In his statement, Lukashenko emphasized that the nuclear weapons were “non-strategic”, i.e. not longer-range and higher-yield bombs.
Lukashenko said in Moscow that the transfer of the weapons was already underway after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree. However, he did not make it clear whether any had arrived in Belarus.
The deal allows Moscow to store warheads at a special facility in Belarus.
According to the deal, which formalizes an earlier agreement between the two leaders and allies, Russia would retain control of the weapons.
In March, Putin announced that he wanted to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
What do we know about the deal?
Both Moscow and Minsk justified the deal as a response to what they saw as Western hostility over Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“The use of non-strategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policies of unfriendly countries,” the Associated Press news agency quoted Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin as saying at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Minsk.
“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, it was decided to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” Shoigu added, according to the AP.
Meanwhile, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya warned that Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus would “ensure Russia’s control of Belarus for years to come.”
“This will further endanger the security of Ukraine and the whole of Europe,” he told AP.
Lukashenko is dependent on Putin’s government.
Last year, Minsk allowed Moscow to use its territory to attack Ukraine. Belarus borders Ukraine to the north, and entering from Belarus created a far broader front than just using the Russian border to the east of Ukraine, and also created a front closer to the capital, Kiev.
Russia’s placement of nuclear weapons in Belarus doesn’t make much of a difference: John Erath, Center for Arms Control Non-Proliferation
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rmt/msh (AP, Portal)