Russia to deploy ‘tactical’ nukes in Belarus, kyiv calls for UN meeting

Ukraine called on Sunday March 26 to organize an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to counter the “nuclear blackmail” of Russia, following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of the forthcoming deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus. “Ukraine expects effective actions to counter Kremlin nuclear blackmail from UK, China, US and France” as permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

>> War in Ukraine: three questions about the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

This statement follows the announcement on Saturday by President Vladimir Putin of a deployment of nuclear weapons “tactics” in the territory of his ally. “There is nothing unusual here: the United States has been doing this for decades. It has long deployed its tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its allies”said the head of state during an interview broadcast on Russian television.

“We agreed to do the same”he added, before detailing: “from April 3, we begin to train crews. And on July 1, we will complete the construction of a special warehouse for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus”. Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov added that the decision was a “step towards the internal destabilization of the country”.