Russia began transferring tactical nuclear warheads to Belarus on Thursday – just hours after the 2 allies signed an agreement formalizing the deployment of the weapons.
“It was needed to prepare landfills and so forth. We did all of it. That’s the reason the nuclear weapons movement has begun,” said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the Moscow summit, according to the state news agency BelTA.
Under the Russia-Belarus deal, the Kremlin will retain control of tactical nuclear weapons designed to destroy enemy troops and equipment on the battlefield.
Lukashenko promised to secure short-range warheads, saying: “Don’t fret about nuclear weapons. We’re answerable for it. These are serious issues. All the things can be positive here.”
If this statement was Lukashenko’s attempt to allay Western fears, it missed the mark greatly.
America strongly condemned the deployment of tactical nuclear bombs, which State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described as “the most recent example of irresponsible behavior we’ve seen from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine greater than a 12 months ago.”
Despite Thursday’s events, Miller said the US sees no reason to revise its nuclear posture “nor any signs that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons.”
The move comes months after President Vladimir Putin revealed his plan to move a few of Russia’s short-range nuclear warheads to Belarus in an apparent warning to the West.
It was not immediately clear what number of nuclear weapons can be deployed in Belarus, which borders three NATO member states: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
America believes that Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons – greater than every other country – including bombs that will be carried by aircraft, short-range missile warheads, and artillery shells.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a much lower yield than nuclear warheads mounted in long-range strategic missiles able to destroying entire cities.
Russian and Belarusian officials framed the signing of the nuclear deal as a response to Western warfare.
“The deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of nations hostile to us,” said Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Chrenin in Minsk at a gathering along with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
“The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war on our countries,” added Shoigu. “Within the context of an extremely rapid escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a call was made to take countermeasures within the military-nuclear sphere.”
The exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Cichanouska, condemned the pact.
“We must do all the things to prevent Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, as it will ensure Russia’s control over Belarus for years to come,” Cichanouska warned. “This may further threaten the safety of Ukraine and all of Europe.”
Russia supports the collapsing economy of Belarus with loans and supplies of low-cost gas and oil. In return, Moscow was allowed to use Belarusian territory as a staging area for the invasion of neighboring Ukraine last 12 months, and maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.
The transfer of nuclear warheads to Belarus has begun within the context of Ukraine’s preparations for a counteroffensive.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group who has openly criticized the military establishment, warned on Thursday that Russia is facing a revolution similar to that of 1917.
Prigozhin said in an interview published on his Telegram channel that Ukraine is preparing to push Russian troops back to its borders before 2014. He also predicted that Kiev’s forces would try to encircle the eastern city of Bakhmut – the middle of a few of the bloodiest battles. — and attack Crimea, which has been within the hands of the Kremlin for nearly a decade.
“We’re in such a state that we could fucking lose Russia – that is the predominant problem,” he said, saying that Russia should impose martial law and prepare its residents for “an arduous war.”
In a separate video published on Thursday, Prigozhin said his fighters had begun withdrawing from Bakhmut and handing over their positions to regular Russian troops.
Prigozhin, who had complained about Shoigu for months and accused the military’s high command of denying his forces enough ammunition, said the Wagner fighters can be ready to return to Bakhmut if the regulars were unable to address the situation.
With postal wires