Putin gives insight into transfer
First nuclear warheads arrived in Belarus
06/16/2023, 7:17 p.m
“God forbid us from using this weapon,” says Belarusian ruler Lukashenko. His country receives tactical nuclear weapons from Russia – for deterrence purposes, it is said. Kremlin boss Putin promises when the stationing of the warheads should be completed.
According to President Vladimir Putin, Russia has sent the first nuclear warheads to Belarus. “The first nuclear warheads have been sent to Belarus,” Putin said at the economic forum in St. Petersburg, specifying the stationing of nuclear weapons in the neighboring country announced by Moscow in March. “These are just the first ones, by the end of the summer, by the end of the year we will have fully completed the process.”
Tactical nuclear weapons, which is what deployment is all about, can cause devastating damage if deployed. However, they have a shorter range than so-called long-range strategic weapons. On Wednesday, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko boasted: “The bombs are three times more powerful than the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” And further: “About a million people will die immediately. God forbid us from using this weapon.”
Lukashenko had allowed Russia to use his country as a launch pad for the offensive against Ukraine. Putin’s announcement that tactical nuclear weapons would be stationed in Belarus had fueled fears of a nuclear escalation in the Ukraine conflict. The Russian President had said that nuclear weapons should deter those who believed they could inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. The Belarusian armed forces began training on nuclear-capable Russian missile systems in April.
In St. Petersburg, Putin said he still sees no reason to use nuclear weapons. Theoretically, this is possible if Russian territory is at risk. Nuclear weapons would only be used if the existence of the Russian state was threatened.