Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia had supplied tactical nuclear warheads to neighboring Belarus and warned his country could use similar weapons in Ukraine, although he said there was “no need” to do so more than a year after his all-out invasion to do.
If the transfer is confirmed, it would be the first time Russia has deployed nuclear weapons outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia retains control of the tactical nuclear weapons, which are to be stored in refurbished Soviet-era storage facilities.
At his key economic conference in St. Petersburg on Friday, the Russian president said Moscow had sent an unspecified number of nuclear warheads to Belarus, adding that deliveries “would be fully completed by the end of the summer or the end of the year.” .
Tactical nuclear weapons, known as “portable nuclear weapons,” are smaller than strategic ones and can be deployed at close range for use on the battlefield — although Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’ strong leader, said this week the warheads are three times more powerful than those Nuclear weapons Bombs dropped by the United States on Japan during World War II.
Putin said Russia has the right to use the weapons because the US has so many nuclear weapons stationed in Europe. He has regularly raised the possibility of using them when Russia’s “statehood” in Ukraine is under threat.
Neither Russia nor Belarus have provided evidence of nuclear weapons deliveries since the plan was first announced in March.
Although Putin has repeatedly stated that Russia has no plans to use a nuclear weapon, in recent weeks he has increasingly hinted at the possibility of using nuclear weapons as his invasion of Ukraine continues to falter.
He had already raised the issue last fall, around the time the US, Britain and France warned Russia that if Putin used nuclear weapons in Ukraine, they would retaliate with a conventional attack. China, Moscow’s ally, has also repeatedly stated that the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.
Putin told the forum’s audience, which was made up of Russia’s elite and a few guests mainly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, that he would oppose any efforts to hold arms control talks with the West.
“We have more of these weapons than NATO countries. They know this and are always trying to get us to talk about reductions. “Fuck it, you know what people say,” Putin said. “Because in this case, to put it economically, it is our competitive advantage.”
Putin’s statement was at the heart of an infuriating three-hour session in which he repeated, without evidence, the claim that Ukraine’s counteroffensive against its invading forces had failed.
He said shipments of modern Western weapons like Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard tanks hadn’t given Kiev the upper hand on the battlefield, and vowed to destroy F-16 fighter jets once Ukraine received them from Western allies.
“Tanks burn, leopards are destroyed too. . . and there is no doubt that the F-16s will also burn,” Putin said.
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If Ukraine deploys the F-16s outside of its own borders, but uses them in the counteroffensive, Russia would “review where and how we can hit the units deployed against us in combat missions,” Putin said, adding that this will be “thrown up”. the serious risk of NATO being drawn into this armed conflict.”
Putin also claimed Russia destroyed five US-made Patriot anti-missile units in Kiev — although Ukraine and its Western allies say they were only supplied with two and additional launchers.
“If we destroy five Patriot systems near Kiev, what prevents us from destroying buildings or parts of infrastructure in central Kiev? There are no such restrictions,” he said. “We can do that, but we don’t do it for a number of reasons. There is no need [for this], that’s the first reason. Because the enemy is not successful at the front,” Putin added.
He insisted that Russia has the right to start the war because Ukraine is ruled by “Nazis”, even though its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.
“I have had many Jewish friends since I was a child. They say Zelensky is not a Jew. “He is a disgrace to the Jewish people,” Putin said, drawing applause from the audience.
He then interrupted his speech to show a short documentary about the Holocaust in Ukraine during World War II in front of his officials and oligarchs.