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Putin says the move does not violate any nonproliferation agreements and that he’s not doing anything the U.S. hasn’t done for decades in stationing its weapons in Europe.
March 26, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC
By Leila Sackur
NATO called his rhetoric “dangerous and irresponsible,” while Ukraine accused President Vladimir Putin of making Belarus a “nuclear hostage” with his announcement that Russia was going to store tactical nuclear weapons in the country, which both nations border.
Insisting that such a move would not violate nuclear nonproliferation agreements, in an interview with state television on Saturday, Putin likened his plans to the U.S. stationing its weapons in Europe.
“There is nothing unusual here,” he said, adding that “the United States has been doing this for decades.” He added that Russia and Belarus had agreed to “do the same thing, without, I would like to highlight, going against our international duties and agreements on the nondistribution of nuclear weapons.”
Russia would not be transferring control of the weapons to Belarus, he said, although he added that his country was planning to complete the construction of a storage facility for them by the summer.
Moscow had already stationed 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons in the country, he said. He added that a number of Iskander tactical missile systems that can launch nuclear weapons had also been stationed in the country.
A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow in May. Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images fileThe Iskander-M contains two guided missiles with a range of up to 300 miles and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
Putin said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long requested the deployment. There was no immediate reaction from Lukashenko.
Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan had nuclear weapons stationed on their territory but handed them over to Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, so this could be the first time since then that Russia has based such weapons outside the country.
American reaction to Putin’s announcement was muted. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told NBC News late Saturday that the U.S. had “not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”
But Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted that the Kremlin “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.”
While the Belarusian army has not formally fought in Ukraine, the country has a close relationship with Russia, and Minsk allowed Moscow to use its territory to send troops into Ukraine last year. The two nations have stepped up joint military training. Russia is also Belarus’ largest and most important political and economic partner.
Calling Russia’s nuclear rhetoric “dangerous and irresponsible,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the organization was “closely monitoring the situation.”
“We have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own,” Lungescu said. “We are committed to protect and defend all NATO allies.” NATO added that Moscow had “consistently broken its arms control commitments,” most recently suspending its participation in the New START Treaty — a key nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, the world’s two largest nuclear powers.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of Britain and NATO’s joint chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear regiment called the plan a “strategic error” and “another sign of desperation coming out of the Kremlin,” after 13 months of war in Ukraine and few victories to show for it.
“It seems that Putin is clutching at straws,” he said, adding that Russian forces had been “hammered” around Bakhmut, where brutal battles for control of the eastern city have raged for months, with neither side gaining much ground.
Moving such weapons closer to NATO nations like Germany, Poland and Lithuania was likely to “hasten Western weapons” to Ukraine, he said. Germany, which has previously been cautious about providing military aid to Ukraine, “might be encouraged” by the potential threat of closer nuclear weapons, he added.
A Russian Iskander-E missile launcher on display during the International Military Technical Forum in Moscow in August.Getty Images fileFor Keir Giles, the author of a forthcoming report on Russia’s nuclear threat for Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in London, the biggest threat from the weapons was to Belarus itself.
“There’s a long tradition of Putin saying what he wants Belarus to do and claiming ‘Belarus asked us,’ but not a peep about it from Minsk,” he said.
“This is not in the category of ‘escalation to scare us,’ it’s more ‘what they have always wanted to do and now Belarus is not in a position to resist anymore,” he said.
De Bretton-Gordon agreed. “Belarus is now a target in a nuclear standoff, an unintended consequence Lukashenko has not fully appreciated,” he said, adding that the announcement might embolden opposition voices in Belarus, who have long been against the war.
And Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus in 2020 after standing against Lukashenko in a disputed presidential election that led to widespread protests across the country, took to Twitter Sunday to complain about the deal.
She said the deal had been announced on “Freedom Day — when Belarusians celebrate the 105th anniversary of Belarus’ independence,” saying that this was “not accidental.”
“Russia acts as the occupying force, violating national security and putting Belarus on the collision course with its neighbors and the international community,” she said.
Reuters
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Associated Press
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