The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has announced that his country has begun receiving shipments of Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
These weapons are reported to be three times more potent than the atomic bombs that the United States deployed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
This development is of significant concern to the international community, as it represents a potential escalation of nuclear arms in the region.
“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.
“The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he said.
Moscow has recently deployed shorter-range, less powerful nuclear warheads outside of Russia for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.
These warheads have the potential to be used on the battlefield.
Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced Tuesday that the nuclear weapons would be physically deployed on Belarusian territory within a few days.
Additionally, Lukashenko stated that he has the necessary facilities to host longer-range missiles if the need ever arises. This move has raised concerns among the international community and highlights the ongoing tensions between Russia and its neighboring countries.
The step is being watched closely by the United States and its allies as well as by China, which has repeatedly cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.
Putin said last Friday that Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.
The Russian leader announced in March he had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the U.S deployment of such weapons in a host of European countries over many decades.
The United States has criticised Putin’s decision but has said it has no intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons and has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
During an interview with Russian state TV, which was released on Tuesday, Lukashenko revealed that Belarus still possesses several nuclear storage facilities from the Soviet-era, and that five or six of them have been restored.
Lukashenko, who has allowed Russian forces to use his country as a base for attacking Ukraine, stated that the deployment of nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent against potential aggressors.
It is worth noting that Belarus shares borders with three NATO member countries, namely Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland.
