Belarus has reportedly received nuclear weapons ahead of schedule from Russia, as President Alexander Lukashenko flaunted his new deterrent to the West yesterday.
Five days after Putin confirmed arrangements to deploy nuclear weapons to ally Belarus, President Lukashenko has coyly implied to Russian state TV that the country has already received nuclear shipments.
Pressed by the Rossiya-1 TV channel reporter on whether Belarus had yet received nuclear weapons, Lukashenko said: “Not all of them, little by little.”
Speaking in a forest clearing by a military industrial complex facility in the Minsk region, the President disclosed: “We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi
Reuters“The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
In a bullish move that might raise a few eyebrows in the Kremlin, Lukashenko boasted that he hadn’t simply asked Vladimir Putin for the weapons, but “demanded” them.
Likewise, where the Russian President emphasised that Moscow would retain full control of nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, Lukashenko said he would not hesitate to use them if Belarus faced aggression.
Lukashenko, 68, then explained that nuclear deployment was a crucial deterrent to potential aggressors, for the President alleged that Belarus has “always been a target” for the West.
The presidents have conflicting narratives over the nuclear arrangement
ReutersThe President said: "They (the West) have wanted to tear us to pieces since 2020. No one has so far fought against a nuclear country, a country that has nuclear weapons."
Ever since mass protests broke out in 2020 in the wake of presidential elections that the opposition said had been won fraudulently, Lukashenko has accused the West of trying to topple him.
Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, mentioned separately on Tuesday that he had the facilities to host longer-range missiles too if ever needed.
The interview was later posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.
It is the first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union
ReutersPutin and Lukashenko met at Bocharov Ruchey, the summer residence of the Russian President, on 9 June to confirm the timeline for repositioning the Russian nuclear arsenal.
The two presidents previously agreed on plans to deploy Russian land-based short-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Moscow's closest ally.
Speaking to his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in Sochi on Friday, the Russian President declared: "So everything is according to plan, everything is stable."
It is the first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Matthew Miller, U.S. State Department spokesperson, described the plans as “the latest example of irresponsible behaviour that we have seen from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over a year ago."
Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, recently travelled to Minsk and told his Belarusian counterpart: "The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war on our countries," according to the Russian defence ministry.
Belarus borders three NATO member countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.