Russia pens deal sending tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus
Russia has begun transferring its tactical nuclear warheads to Belarus Thursday — just hours after the two allied nations signed an agreement formalizing the weapons’ deployment.
“It was necessary to prepare storage sites, and so on. We did all this. Therefore, the movement of nuclear weapons began,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said while attending a summit in Moscow, according to state news agency BelTA.
Under the Russia-Belarus deal, Kremlin will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, which are designed to obliterate enemy troops and equipment on the battlefield.
Lukashenko promised to keep the short-range warheads safe, saying: “Don’t worry about nuclear weapons. We are responsible for this. These are serious issues. Everything will be all right here.”
If the statement was Lukashenko’s attempt to allay Western concerns, it badly missed its mark.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, signed an agreement with his Belarusian counterpart, Viktor Khrenin, formalizing the deployment of Russia tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. via REUTERS
The US strongly condemned the deployment of the tactical nukes, which State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller decried as “the latest example of irresponsible behavior that we have seen from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over a year ago.”
Despite Thursday’s developments, Miller said the US has seen no reason to adjust its nuclear posture “or any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, who attended a summit with Vladimir Putin, left, in Moscow, said that the warheads were already on their way to his country. Getty Images
The move comes months after President Vladimir Putin unveiled his plan to transfer some of Russia’s short-range nuclear warheads to Belarus in an apparent warning to the West.
It was not immediately clear how many nuclear weapons would be staged in Belarus, which shares borders with three NATO member states: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
The US believes Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons – more than any other country — which include bombs that can be carried by aircraft, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery rounds.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a much lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of wiping out whole cities.
Russia is bracing for Ukraine’s upcoming counteroffensive, which is expected to get underway in the coming weeks or months. AP
Russian and Belarusian officials framed the signing of the nuclear deal as a response to hostilities from the West.
“Deployment of nonstrategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us,” Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said in Minsk at a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
“The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war against our countries,” Shoigu added. “In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere.”
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemned the pact.
Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said that his mercenaries have started withdrawing from Bakhmut and transferring their positions to Russian regulars. TELEGRAM/ @concordgroup_official/AFP via Getty Images
“We must do everything to prevent Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, as this will ensure Russia’s control over Belarus for years to come,” Tsikhanouskaya warned. “This will further jeopardize the security of Ukraine and all of Europe.”
Russia has been propping up Belarusia’s sagging economy with loans and shipments of cheap gas and oil. In exchange, Moscow was allowed to use Belarusian territory as a staging ground for invading neighboring Ukraine last year and has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.
The transfer of nuclear warheads to Belarus has begun against the backdrop of Ukraine’s preparations for a counteroffensive.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group who has been openly critical of the military establishment, warned Thursday that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine unless the elite got serious about trying to win the conflict.
Prigozhin warned that Ukrainian forces would try to encircle Bakhmut, which has seen the bloodiest battles of the war. ZUMAPRESS.com
Prigozhin said in an interview posted on his Telegram channel that Ukraine was gearing up to push Russian troops back to its borders before 2014. He also predicted that Kyiv’s forces would try to encircle the eastern city of Bakhmut — the focus of some of the bloodiest battles — and attack Crimea, which has been in the Kremlin’s hands for nearly a decade.
“We are in such a condition that we could f—ing lose Russia — that is the main problem,” he said, saying that Russia should impose martial law and prepare its citizens for “an arduous war.”
In a separate video published Thursday, Prigozhin said that his fighters have started withdrawing from Bakhmut and transferring their positions to regular Russian troops.
Prigozhin, who has been railing against Shoigu for months and accusing top military brass of denying his forces sufficient ammunition, said Wagner fighters would be ready to return to Bakhmut if the regulars were unable to manage the situation.
With Post wires
Source: New York Post
