The Russian president has announced an agreement to place nuclear weapons in this country, which borders Ukraine
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, takes another step in the escalation of tension with the West over the war in Ukraine. This Saturday he announced an agreement to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Putin is responding in this way to the UK‘s decision to supply the Ukrainian army with depleted uranium ammunition, although London says it is not nuclear weapons.
The Russian president has announced that on July 1 they will have completed the construction of a silo to place this weaponry in Belarus. Putin assures that the agreement does not violate existing nuclear non-proliferation treaties.
In an appearance on Russian public television, Putin recalled that the Belarusian president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, had long ago requested the deployment of this type of weaponry. Putin has specified, however, that these tactical nuclear weapons will remain Russian property:
“We are not ceding them, the United States is not ceding them to its allies either. In principle, we will do the same as they have done for decades.”
While acknowledging that the munition Britain will send to Ukraine is not considered a weapon of mass destruction, Putin has said it is “extremely dangerous” and could create a radioactive cloud after impact.
And he insisted on the fact that “Russia has, of course, something to respond to”:
“Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of these projectiles. And we haven’t used them yet.”
In addition, he has assured that the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine will only serve to prolong the conflict and “lead to a great tragedy”.
In the West, reactions to the Kremlin’s announcement did not take long. Josep Borrell, the high representative of the European Union’s Foreign Policy, has stated that it means “a new escalation in the conflict”.
According to Borrell, the deployment announced today by Vladimir Putin is “a new sign of cooperation between the dictatorial regime of Belarus and Russia”.