Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stands while listening to the Ukrainian national anthem after arriving on the European Parliament on February 9, 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.
Omar Havana | Getty Images
NATO condemned Russia’s “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric on Sunday after President Vladimir Putin shared plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Putin announced the agreement during an interview on Russian television on Saturday and said it could not violate nuclear non-proliferation agreements. He said the statement was “nothing unusual” and that the US was doing something similar by stationing weapons in Europe, which a NATO spokesman called “completely misleading”.
“NATO allies are acting in full respect of their international obligations,” a spokesman told NBC News. “Russia has consistently breached its arms control commitments, most recently suspending its participation in the brand new START treaty.”
The Recent START treaty sets a limit on the variety of strategic warheads that the US and Russia can deploy. In February, Putin announced that Russia intended to suspend its participation within the treaty.
A NATO spokesman added that there had been no changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that might prompt NATO to regulate its own.
Following Putin’s statement on Saturday, Ukraine called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it expected “effective motion” in response to Russian threats of nuclear aggression.
“Russia reaffirms its chronic inability to be a responsible nuclear weapons provider as a method of deterring and stopping war, and not as a tool of threats and intimidation,” the statement said. “The world must unite against whoever threatens the long run of human civilization.”
In a Sunday interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there was no indication that Putin would honor his cope with Belarus or transfer any nuclear weapons. He added that Putin had not hinted at any intention to make use of nuclear weapons, period, however the US continued to observe the situation closely.
Government officials across the world condemned Putin’s statement on Twitter on Sunday. Ukrainian national security official he said in a tweet that Russia has taken Belarus as a “nuclear hostage” and that placing tactical nuclear weapons there’ll cause turmoil within the country.
“Putin’s statement concerning the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus – a step towards internal destabilization of the country – maximizes the extent of negative perception and public rejection of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society,” Oleksiy Danilov wrote early Sunday morning.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, wrote that the EU “is prepared” impose further sanctions on Russia. He called Russia’s statement an “irresponsible escalation” and a threat to European security.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a Sunday tweet that Putin is “too predictable.”
“Commenting on tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he’s afraid of losing and the one thing he can do is threaten with tactics,” he wrote.