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Russia to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus Russia to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus
(about 3 hours later)
Deal will not violate non-proliferation agreements, Putin says Deal with allied neighbour will not violate non-proliferation agreements, Putin says
Russia has struck a deal with Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory but will not violate non-proliferation agreements, Vladimir Putin has said. Russia has reached an agreement with Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its smaller neighbour’s territory, so bringing some of its arsenal closer to the rest of Europe, Vladimir Putin has said.
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, had long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin told state television. The Russian president made the announcement on state television, arguing that it would not breach non-proliferation agreements and that it would match similar arrangements that the US has with several of its European allies.
“There is nothing unusual here either: firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades,” he said. “They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries. Putin said he was acting following negotiations with Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, who he said had “long raised the question” of a nuclear deployment on his country’s territory.
“We agreed that we will do the same – without violating our obligations, I emphasise, without violating our international obligations on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.” “There is nothing unusual here either: firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades,” Putin said. “They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries.”
Russia will have completed the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by 1 July, Putin said, adding that Moscow would not actually be transferring control of the arms to Minsk. It is estimated by the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation that there are about 100 American nuclear weapons – airborne gravity bombs – stored in Europe across six bases in five countries, although they are retained in the control of the US.
Russia has stationed 10 aircraft in Belarus capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, he said, adding that Moscow had already transferred to Belarus a number of Iskander tactical missile systems that can be used to launch nuclear weapons. “We agreed that we will do the same – without violating our obligations, I emphasise, without violating our international obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” the Russian president added.
Putin has repeatedly made nuclear threats or escalated nuclear rhetoric following the full invasion of Ukraine, but this is the first time the Russian leader has announced a plan to station nuclear weapons in another country.
Moscow has 5,977 nuclear warheads in its inventory, according to the Federation of American Scientists, and has long had the capability to strike a target anywhere in the world. The US has slightly fewer, at about 5,428.
Belarus is one of Russia’s few remaining friends. Lukashenko allowed the Kremlin to invade Ukraine from its territory at the beginning of the war, which saw Moscow make a failed attempt to capture Kyiv. But it has not joined in the war itself, and a fresh attack via the country is still not thought likely.
However, Putin’s televised remarks came only a few days after the Kremlin signed up to a joint declaration with China agreeing to restrict future nuclear weapons deployments abroad, following the visit of Beijing’s president, Xi Jinping, to the country
“All nuclear-weapon states should refrain from deploying nuclear weapons abroad and withdraw nuclear weapons deployed abroad,” the joint text said, although it is not binding on either country.
Russia will have completed the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by 1 July, Putin said, but no timetable was given for when the bombs would physically move into the country.
Pavel Podvig, director of the Russian Nuclear Forces Project and one of the world’s leading independent experts on Russia’s nuclear arsenal, said it was not immediately clear whether the storage site was already under construction.
If it was, Podvig tweeted, he hoped it would be located by independent specialists quickly using satellite imagery because “three months [to complete it by July] seems like a really tight schedule”.
Russia has stationed 10 aircraft in Belarus capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, Putin said, and equipped them appropriately. Air crews would be trained from 3 April, the president added.
Putin also said that Russia had given Belarus Iskander missile systems that can be used to launch nuclear weapons, although it was unclear whether that reflected the type of bombs to be deployed.
The Russian leader also bizarrely claimed that Lukashenko had asked about nuclear weapons following a statement earlier this week by the UK that it would be supplying depleted uranium shells with its fleet of Challenger 2 tanks.
Depleted uranium is a by-product of the enrichment process to make nuclear weapons or fuel, so as a result is less radioactive. Its military purpose is as a tough and penetrating metal for shells and, while its toxicity makes its use on the battlefield controversial, it is not in any sense a nuclear weapon.
US nuclear weapons are believed to be stored in six bases: Kleine Brogel in Belgium; Büchel air base in Germany; Aviano and Ghedi air bases in Italy; Volkel airbase in the Netherlands; and İncirlik in Turkey.
The UK has its own nuclear weapons, as does France, while the last nuclear weapons known to have been stored in the UK left in 2008. But a storage facility at RAF Lakenheath is being upgraded so that, in theory, it could store such weapons again.