Russia May Put Strategic Nukes in Belarus: Lukashenko

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that his country intended to deploy tactical, comparatively short-range and small-yield nuclear weapons in Belarus.

“Putin and I will decide and introduce here, if necessary, strategic weapons, and they must understand this, the scoundrels abroad, who today are trying to blow us up from inside and outside,” the Belarusian leader said in his annual address amid escalating tensions over the conflict in Ukraine.

“We will stop at nothing to protect our countries, our state and their peoples,” he stated.

Both he and Putin say that Western powers want to ruin Russia and Belarus.

Earlier in the address, Lukashenko called for a cease-fire in Ukraine, AP reported.

A truce must be announced without any preconditions, and all movement of troops and weapons must be halted, he said.

Belarus and Russia have intensified their cooperation since the start of the Ukraine war. The Russian military has used its troops and missiles stationed in Belarus, although no Belarusian troops have participated in the fighting.

Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan all relinquished nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Under the so-called Budapest Memorandum that accompanied giving up the weapons, Russia, the United States and Britain agreed to respect the territorial integrity of those countries.

Lukashenko said Friday that he did not want to lose his country’s nuclear weapons but was pressured into doing so by then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin.