In response to worldwide criticism of Russia's use of nuclear weapons in its current conflict with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has relocated nuclear warheads to Belarus.
“As you know we were negotiating with our ally, Belarusian President [Alexander] Lukashenko, that we would move a part of these tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus—this has happened,” Putin said on Friday while speaking at a Russian economic forum in St. Petersburg. “The first nuclear warheads were delivered to the territory of Belarus. But only the first ones, the first part. But we will do this job completely by the end of the summer or by the end of the year.”
The Russian president stressed that the stationing of nuclear weapons in Belarus will serve as "an element of deterrence" to any nations that are "thinking about inflicting a strategic defeat on us."
“Nuclear weapons have been made to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but we … have no such need [to use them],” Putin added.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has never before deployed such shorter-range nuclear weapons outside of its borders. These warheads could also be located away from the conflict.
The idea of deploying nuclear weapons has been brought up more frequently in recent weeks by the Russian president as the conflict in Ukraine drags on.
The United States, France, and the United Kingdom forewarned Russia last October that they would reply with a conventional strike if Moscow deployed nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The employment of nuclear weapons in the conflict would not be tolerated, according to Beijing.
