(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Moscow was going to deploy “tactical” nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, Belarus, a country located at the gates of the European Union.
Russian officials have repeatedly issued thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if the conflict escalates significantly. Led since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus borders Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.
“There is nothing unusual here: the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long been deploying their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies,” Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian television.
“We agreed to do the same,” he added, saying he had the Minsk agreement.
“We have already helped our Belarusian colleagues and equipped their planes […] without violating our international commitments on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Ten planes are ready to use this type of weapon”, continued Mr. Putin, according to which Moscow also transferred Iskander missiles.
“From April 3, we start training the crews. And the 1er July, we will complete the construction of a special warehouse for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus,” he added.
Belarus is not directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, but Moscow used its territory to lead its offensive on Kyiv last year or to carry out strikes, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Uranium shells
According to Mr Putin, this decision was motivated by London’s desire to send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, as recently mentioned by a British official.
Mr. Putin threatened to also use this type of shell, used to pierce armor, if Kyiv were to receive any.
“Russia, of course, has something to answer for. We have, without exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of such shells. We are not using them at the moment,” the Russian president said.
He called this type of weapon shell among “the most dangerous” and which “generates what is called radiation dust”.
British Deputy Defense Minister Annabel Goldie confirmed on Monday that the United Kingdom would supply Ukraine with depleted uranium shells, effective against tanks and other armored vehicles.
Putin also said on Saturday that he considered Western arms supplies to Ukraine, vital to Kyiv’s war effort, to be a “threat” to Russia.
However, he welcomed the progress of the Russian arms industry, which he said will be able to produce 1,600 tanks in the next three years, which would allow the Russian army to have “more than three times more” than his opponent.
Nuclear threats
During recent negotiations in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the two leaders had stated in a joint statement that a nuclear war “must never be started”, because “there can be no winners”.
Several Russian officials, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have however threatened Ukraine and Westerners with nuclear weapons since the start of the Russian offensive launched on February 24, 2022.
Russia also suspended last month the important New Start nuclear disarmament treaty signed with the United States, although it promised to respect the limitation of its nuclear arsenal until the effective end of this agreement on 5 February 2026.
Vladimir Putin had accused Ukraine last year of wanting to acquire a “dirty bomb”, a weapon made up of conventional explosives surrounded by radioactive materials intended to be scattered into dust at the time of the explosion.
Ukraine and its Western allies had condemned these allegations and accused Russia of playing nuclear escalation. Moscow boasts of having developed supersonic weapons capable of piercing existing anti-missile shields.
Russian nuclear doctrine does not provide for the preventive use by Russia of nuclear weapons, but only in response to an attack on it or its allies, or in the event of a “threat to the very existence of the state”.