Belarus starts taking delivery of Russian nuclear weapons - president
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[June 14, 2023]
By Lidia Kelly and Andrew Osborn
(Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his
country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons,
some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic
bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The deployment is Moscow's first move of such warheads - shorter-range
less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the
battlefield - outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
"We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,"
Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV
channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency's
Telegram channel.
"The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he said, speaking on a road in a forest
clearing with military vehicles parked nearby and some kind of military
storage facility visible in the background.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia, which will
retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying
them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made
ready.
The Russian leader announced in March he had agreed to deploy tactical
nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the U.S deployment of such
weapons in a host of European countries over many decades.
The United States has criticised Putin's decision but has said it has no
intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons and
has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
The Russian step is nonetheless being watched closely by the United
States and its allies as well as by China, which has repeatedly
cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
'WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A TARGET'
Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, told Russian state TV in the
interview, which was released late on Tuesday, that his country had
numerous nuclear storage facilities left over from the Soviet-era and
had restored five or six of them.
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Belarusian President Alexander
Lukashenko speaks to journalists during his visit to a
military-industrial complex facility in the Minsk Region, Belarus
June 13, 2023. Press Service of the President of the Republic of
Belarus/Handout via REUTERS
He played down the idea that Russian control of the weapons was an
impediment to using them quickly if he felt such a move was
necessary, saying he and Putin could pick up the phone to each other
"at any moment".
Earlier on Tuesday, he had said separately that the Russian tactical
nuclear weapons would be physically deployed on the territory of
Belarus "in several days" and that he had the facilities to host
longer-range missiles too if ever needed.
Lukashenko, who has allowed his country to be used by Russian forces
attacking Ukraine as part of what Moscow calls its "special military
operation", says the nuclear deployment will act as a deterrent
against potential aggressors.
Belarus borders three NATO member countries: Lithuania, Latvia and
Poland.
The 68-year-old former Soviet collective farm boss, who has ruled
Belarus since 1994, making him Europe's longest-serving leader, said
he didn't simply ask Putin for the weapons, but "demanded" them.
"We have always been a target," Lukashenko said. "They (the West)
have wanted to tear us to pieces since 2020. No one has so far
fought against a nuclear country, a country that has nuclear
weapons."
Lukashenko has repeatedly accused the West of trying to topple him
after mass protests against his rule erupted in 2020 in the wake of
a presidential election the opposition said he had fraudulently won.
Lukashenko said he had won fairly, while conducting a sweeping
crackdown on his opponents.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Andrew Osborn in London;
Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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