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President Alexander Lukashenko raised the plans during a meeting
at the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin, who appeared to
publicly support the idea.
Lukashenko said the plant could be used if needed to supply
areas controlled by Russia in Ukraine’s Kherson, Zaporizhzhia,
Luhansk, and Donetsk.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of Belarus’
opposition, told The Associated Press that the plans put “all of
Europe at risk.”
She added: “By proposing that Putin build a second nuclear power
plant in Belarus to supply electricity to occupied territories
in Ukraine, Lukashenko once again proves he is complicit in
Russian aggression. He is trading Belarusian sovereignty for
power and profits from war crimes.”
Belarus opened its first nuclear power plant, in Astravets, in
November 2020, amid protests and concern in neighboring
Lithuania, where the authorities opposed the plant’s
construction just 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from the
capital, Vilnius.
The Astravets plant was built by the Russian state atomic energy
corporation, Rosatom, with a $10 billion loan provided by
Moscow. Putin did not specify at Friday's meeting whether Russia
would provide financial backing for a second plant.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for over three decades, is a
close ally of the Kremlin. He allowed Russia to use Belarusian
territory as a staging ground for Moscow’s full-scale invasion
of Ukraine in February 2022, and later authorized the deployment
of Russian tactical nuclear missiles.
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