President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that his deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which he confirmed for the primary time, served as a reminder to the West that he couldn’t inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
Speaking at Russia’s flagship economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said that Russia’s tactical nuclear warheads had already been delivered to close ally Belarus, but stressed that he didn’t see the necessity for Russia to resort to nuclear weapons for now.
“As you understand, we negotiated with our ally (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko to transfer a few of these tactical nuclear weapons to Belarusian territory – that’s what happened,” Putin said.
“The primary nuclear warheads have been delivered to the territory of Belarus. But only the primary ones, the primary part. But we’ll complete this work completely by the top of the summer or by the top of the yr.”
The move, the primary time Moscow has deployed such warheads – shorter-range nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield – outside of Russia because the collapse of the Soviet Union, was intended as a warning to the West against arming and supporting Ukraine, the Russian leader said.
“…It’s precisely as a deterrent element so that all who consider inflicting a strategic defeat on us will not be unaware of this circumstance,” Putin said, using the diplomatic term for a defeat so severe that Russian power can be weakened on the world stage for many years.
![Speaking at Russia's flagship economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said that Russian tactical nuclear warheads had already been delivered to close ally Belarus.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/2023-06-16T153001Z_1724279650_RC2FK1AGIV5G_RTRMADP_3_RUSSIA-FORUM-PUTIN.jpg?w=1024)
Lukashenka, a staunch ally of Putin, he said Late Tuesday evening, his country began receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons that contained about thrice more powerful atomic bombs than the atomic bombs dropped by the USA on Japan in 1945.
The Russian leader announced in March that he had agreed to the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the U.S.’s deployment of such weapons in lots of European countries for a lot of many years.
Putin Says WEST WANTS STRATEGIC Defeat
The US criticized Putin’s decision but said it had no intention of fixing its position on strategic nuclear weapons and saw no signs that Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons.
The Russian move, nevertheless, is closely watched by Washington and its allies, in addition to by China, which has repeatedly warned against using nuclear weapons within the war in Ukraine.
Putin said the West is doing all the pieces in its power to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine, where Moscow is embroiled in Europe’s biggest land war since World War II after it invaded a neighbor last yr in a so-called “special military operation” “.
![Putin talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on June 9. Putin said Russian tactical nuclear warheads have already been delivered to Belarus's close ally,](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Russia_Belarus_29068-b1d28.jpg?w=1024)
But Russia doesn’t have to resort to nuclear weapons in the intervening time, Putin said, signaling no change in Moscow’s nuclear position, which envisages such a move only within the event of a threat to the existence of the Russian state.
“Nuclear weapons were created to ensure our security within the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but … now we have no such need (to use them),” Putin said.
But he said talks with the West to reduce Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, the world’s largest, had not began.
“Just talking about it (the potential use of nuclear weapons) lowers the nuclear threshold. We now have greater than NATO countries, and so they want to reduce our numbers. Fuck them,” Putin said.
Addressing his country’s political and business elite, sounding defiant, he said that the Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces in Ukraine had to this point not achieved any significant success. He said Kiev’s forces suffered heavy casualties and “didn’t stand a probability” against Russian troops.
![The Russian leader announced in March that he had agreed to the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the U.S.'s deployment of such weapons in many European countries for many decades.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/sipausa_46136809.jpg?w=1024)
![Lukashenka during a visit to a missile manufacturing company in the Minsk region of Belarus on June 13, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Belarus_Lukashenko_57880-e8dc7.jpg?w=1024)
He suggested that Ukraine would soon run out of its own military equipment, making it completely depending on Western-supplied equipment, undermining its ability to fight long-term.
Recalling the declared goals of “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine at first of the war, Putin said:
“As for demilitarization, soon Ukraine will completely stop using its own equipment. nothing left. All the things they fight for and all the pieces they use is imported from outside. Well, you possibly can’t fight that long.
Putin warns against F-16S
Independent military analysts say Ukraine outnumbered the Russian army in nearly 16 months of war, forcing it into major retreats across the cities of Kiev, Kharkiv and Kherson.
Ukrainian military commanders said on Friday that advancing Ukrainian troops are facing “desperate resistance” from Russian forces around the town of Bakhmut, which Russia captured last month after the longest battle of the war.
Ukraine claims to have recaptured seven villages and 38 square miles within the early stages of the counter-offensive.
However the Ministry of Defense of Russia he said on Friday his forces repulsed quite a few attempted counter-attacks by the Ukrainian army at various locations on the front line over the past 24 hours, inflicting heavy losses on Kiev’s forces.
Putin said that Western-supplied equipment, equivalent to German Leopard tanks, was usually destroyed, and if Kiev received American F-16 fighter jets from allies, they too would burst into flames.
“The F-16s may even burn, little doubt. But in the event that they are stationed outside Ukraine and utilized in combat operations, we can have to take a look at how and where to engage those assets that are utilized in combat operations against us.”
He said this represented a “serious danger” of drawing NATO into the conflict.