Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in St. Petersburg that the missile systems “can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions,” according to the Kremlin.
Russia partially launched its February 24 invasion from Belarusian territory bordering Ukraine to the north. Throughout the war, Moscow has used Minsk as a satellite base, including for many of Russia’s air operations in Ukraine, according to information gathered by NATO surveillance aircraft.
On Saturday, Ukraine claimed that Russian forces fired several rockets at the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions from Belarus.
In a transcript of the meeting, Lukashenko expressed his “stress” to Putin over alleged flights by United States and NATO planes “training to transport nuclear warheads” near the Belarusian border.
He urged Putin to consider “a mirrored response” to the flights or to convert Russian warplanes currently based in Belarus to “nuclear warheads.”
Putin responded that there was “no need” to adapt US flights and suggested that Belarus could instead convert its own Su-25 aircraft to be nuclear-capable.
“This modernization should be carried out at aircraft factories in Russia, but we will agree with you on how to do it. And start training the flight crew accordingly,” Putin said.
What is the Iskander-M?
The Iskander-M is a Russian-built short-range ballistic missile system capable of carrying conventional or nuclear warheads at a maximum range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to Janes Defense.
The weapon uses both optical and inertial guidance systems to hit its targets and hits them with a variety of warheads, including cluster munitions, vacuum bombs, bunker busters and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warheads, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
The Iskander-M was first used in 2008 during the Russia-Georgia conflict when the Russian army used it to hit targets in Gori, according to Allianz.
CNN has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on Lukashenko’s claims.
G7 and NATO Summits
The meeting between the Russian and Belarusian strongmen came a week ago from summits in Europe, where the grueling war in Ukraine – entering its fifth month – will take center stage.
The leaders of Japan, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the European Union and host Germany meet in the Group of 7 on Monday.
US President Joe Biden hopes to join European allies in announcing new sanctions and military aid during his visits to Germany and Spain. Both the G7 and NATO summits will hear from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who continues to plead for more help from the US and other countries.
“Packages of sanctions against Russia are not enough,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Saturday, calling on Western partners to provide more “armed aid” to Ukraine.
“The air defense systems – the modern systems that our partners have – should not be in training areas or storage facilities, but in Ukraine, where they are needed now,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military confirmed on Saturday that it has started deploying an advanced Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) supplied by the US to attack Russian targets. Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi released a video that he believed showed the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) firing its rocket at an unspecified location at night. CNN reported Thursday that HIMARS had arrived in Ukraine, citing the country’s defense ministry.
Fall of Severodonetsk
On Saturday, after months of grueling and bloody fighting, the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk was “completely under Russian occupation,” said the city’s military administration chief Oleksandr Striuk. Severodonetsk was one of the last major Ukrainian strongholds in the region.
Regional military officials said on Friday that the last troops in Severodonetsk had been ordered to withdraw as it was impossible to continue defending their positions. This effectively ceded the city to Russia and placed the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk almost entirely under Russian control.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday its forces had now taken control of the entire left bank of the Siverskyi Donets, the east side of the river and all borders of the Luhansk People’s Republic.
Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said Russian forces “completely liberated the cities of Severodonetsk and Borivske, the settlements of Voronove and Syrotyne of the Lugansk People’s Republic.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Tim Lister and Olga Voitovych contributed coverage.