A meeting between Defence Ministers of Belarus and Russia, Viktar Khrenin and Sergey Shoigu, took place in Minsk; during the meeting they signed documents on stationing Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, the Belarusian Defence Ministry reports.
“The stationing of non-strategic nuclear weapons is an effective answer to the aggressive politics conducted by hostile countries,” Khrenin said.
The “non-strategic nuclear weapons”, according to the statement, will be placed “in a special facility”.
“Russia is not passing nuclear weapons to Republic Belarus: control over them and decision to use them will still be carried out by Russia,” Shoigu clarified.
Photo: Press service for the Defence Ministry of Belarus
In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would finish constructing “a special storage for tactical nuclear weapons” in Belarus on 1 July. According to him, Russia has already deployed ten planes capable of carrying these weapons in Belarus, while also handing an Iskander missile system to Minsk.
Afterwards, Ukraine appealed to Belarusian people, calling upon them not to let nuclear weapons be deployed on the territory of Belarus, seeing as that could “turn the country into the Kremlin’s hostage and have catastrophic consequences for its future”.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell stated that the EU stood “ready to respond with further sanctions” if Russian nuclear weapons were to be placed in Belarus.
