Reuters experts regard Vladimir Putin’s decision as an important event, since Russia has so far prided itself on not having deployed nuclear weapons outside its borders, unlike the United States.
Putin made the announcement at a time of growing tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine, amid speculation by some Russian commentators about possible nuclear strikes.
Tactical nukes are the types of weapons that are used to achieve specific battlefield goals, not those that are capable of destroying entire cities. It is not known how many such weapons Russia has.
“It’s part of Putin’s game to try to bully NATO… There’s no military advantage to this move because Russia has enough of these weapons inside the country,” he said. Hans Christensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the United States Federation. American scientists.
Putin told state television that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long raised the issue of the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in his country: “There is nothing unusual here: first, the United States have been doing it for decades. They have long since placed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of allied countries, he said. “We agreed that we would do the same – without violating our obligations, I emphasize without violating our international obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.”
“We do not transfer weapons. And the United States does not hand it over to its allies. We’re basically doing the same thing they’ve been doing for a decade,” Putin said. “They have certain allied countries, they train their personnel there… We will do the same.”
“This is a very important step,” said Nikolai Sokol, senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation. – Russia has always been very proud not to have nuclear weapons outside its territory. So now, yes, they’re changing that, and it’s a big change.”
Putin did not specify when the weapons would be transferred to Belarus. Russia intends to complete the construction of a tactical nuclear weapons storage facility in Belarus by July 1, 2023. It has already deployed ten aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, said Putin, adding that Moscow had already donated to Belarus a number of Iskander tactical missile systems, the missiles of which could carry nuclear warheads.
Historically, at the time of the collapse of the USSR in 1991, four newly independent states, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, possessed nuclear weapons. In May 1992, these states agreed that all weapons would be concentrated in Russia. The transfer of warheads from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan was completed in 1996. Belarus borders three NATO members – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
