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The United States and its European allies warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday about what they saw as “dangerous” nuclear rhetoric after he announced plans to stockpile tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, a close Moscow ally that borders northern Ukraine .
At the same time, the western powers said they see no immediate danger or reason to change their own strategic nuclear positions in the wake of his comments. NATO called his statements, which he made on TV on Saturday, “irresponsible,” but said it had seen no changes to Russia’s nuclear stance “that would cause us to adjust our own.”
US officials also downplayed the move, with National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby telling CBS News’ Face the Nation there was no indication that Putin had “fulfilled that promise or brought nuclear weapons around.”
“We haven’t seen anything that would cause us to change our own strategic deterrent posture,” he said.
On Saturday, Putin told Russian state television that Moscow would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus later this year at the request of Minsk. He said the plan would not violate Russia’s nuclear non-proliferation agreements – and likened the move to the United States stationing nuclear weapons in Europe.
In a statement on Sunday, NATO dismissed this characterization as “completely misleading”.
Putin said: “We have reached an agreement [with Belarus] that we will do the same. Without, I would like to emphasize, violating our international commitments to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. On July 1 we will complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.”
Russia, he said, will help Minsk refurbish aircraft to carry the weapons and has already transferred several Iskander missile systems to Belarus.
Ukraine on Sunday accused Russia of holding Belarus “a nuclear hostage”. Moscow is trying to destabilize the country, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Twitter.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over a year ago, the Kremlin has frequently responded with nuclear saber-rattling in response to Western criticism or perceived aggression. Russian officials have threatened Ukraine with nuclear strikes if it tries to retake the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
But Putin’s comments on Saturday stood in stark contrast to his apparent vows to prevent a nuclear war during a three-day visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow just last week. In a joint statement, Russia and China agreed that a nuclear war can never be won and reaffirmed their commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Xi and Putin show alliance but offer no path to peace in Ukraine
The statement even prompted Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, to say he believes it has made the world a safer place.
But on Sunday, Borrell criticized Putin’s plans to move nuclear weapons to Belarus, calling it “an irresponsible escalation and threat to European security.”
“Belarus can still stop it, it’s their choice,” Borrell said on Twitter.
In another tweet, Belarus’ opposition leader in exile Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya said that the use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons “directly violates the constitution of Belarus” and “disregards” the country’s sovereignty.
“Russia is acting as an occupying power, violating national security and putting Belarus on a collision course with its neighbors and the international community,” Tsikhanouskaya said wrote.
In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus signed the Budapest Memorandum of Security Guarantees and other agreements that resulted in Minsk giving up its nuclear weapons.
The plan to move Russia’s nuclear weapons also raised questions about the safety of the bombs. Last month, anti-government partisans in Belarus claimed to have damaged a Russian surveillance plane stationed at a Minsk airport. The group said they used a drone.
In Germany, the State Department said Putin’s announcement was “another attempt at nuclear intimidation by Russia,” while US Senator Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) told CNN’s State of the Union that the Russian leader was “a dangerous man.”
According to Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin’s comments were “too predictable” and a sign of weakness as Ukrainian forces confront Russian forces on the battlefield.
“By making a statement about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he is afraid of losing and all he can do is use tactics to scare people,” Podolyak wrote on twitter.
One year of Russia’s war in Ukraine
Portraits of Ukraine: Every Ukrainian’s life has changed – big and small – since Russia launched its full-scale invasion a year ago. They have learned to survive and support each other in extreme circumstances, in bomb shelters and hospitals, destroyed apartment complexes and destroyed marketplaces. Scroll through portraits of Ukrainians reflecting on a year of loss, resilience and fear.
Attrition: Over the past year, the war has morphed from an invasion on multiple fronts that included Kiev in the north to a conflict of attrition largely centered on a vast territory to the east and south. Follow the 600-mile frontline between Ukrainian and Russian forces and get a glimpse of where the fighting was concentrated.
Living apart for a year: Russia’s invasion, coupled with Ukraine’s martial law barring military-age men from leaving the country, has forced millions of Ukrainian families to make agonizing choices about how to balance safety, duty and love, with once-intertwined lives no longer are recognizable. This is what a train station full of farewells looked like last year.
Deepening of the global divide: President Biden has dubbed the reinvigorated Western alliance forged during the war a “global coalition,” but a closer look suggests the world is far from settled on the issues raised by the Ukraine war to be united. There is ample evidence that efforts to isolate Putin have failed and that sanctions have not stopped Russia thanks to its oil and gas exports.
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