Russia will use nuclear weapons if there is a real threat of the country’s collapse, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in a message to the people and the National Assembly.
“If the Russian leadership realizes that the situation threatens the collapse of Russia, the most terrible weapon will be used. It cannot be allowed,” Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian leader also called in vain on the hopes of the Ukrainian leadership to suppress Russia on the battlefield. The hope of defeating a nuclear power, he says, is folly.
On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow’s intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating international obligations. This decision was a response to the UK’s intention to supply the Ukraine with depleted uranium shells. According to Putin, Russia does not give its neighbor its nuclear weapons, but simply places them on the territory of an allied state in the manner of what the United States has been doing everywhere and for a long time. The tactical nuclear weapons storage facilities in Belarus will be completed on July 1.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that the deployment of Russian missiles with nuclear warheads on the territory of the republic does not violate the provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
