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Russia’s ambassador to Belarus says his country is bent on moving its tactical nuclear weapons close to the border with Belarus, placing them nearer than ever before to the threshold of US-led military alliance of NATO.
Boris Gryzlov’s Sunday remarks came after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced in late March that Moscow will station its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which together with Russia are part of a “union state.”
Later the same month, Belarus indicated its readiness to host Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons, saying such a move would show the two nations’ readiness to defend their “sovereignty and independence.”
The weapons “will be moved to the western border of our union state and will increase the possibilities to ensure security,” Gryzlov told Belarusian state television, adding, “This will be done despite the noise in Europe and the United States.”
The Russian ambassador, however, did not specify where the weapons will be stationed, but confirmed that a storage facility will be completed, as ordered by Putin, by July 1 and then moved to the west of Belarus.
The US and many other Western countries have already expressed concern about the possibility that Russia would send tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, with American President Joe Biden saying it was “worrisome.”
Putin, however, argued that the deployment would not breach the nonproliferation agreements, noting that the US has been stationing its nuclear weapons in Europe for decades.
“There is nothing unusual here, either…, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” Putin said.
According to his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, Minsk has already ordered its military to restore the facilities used to store the Topol intercontinental ballistic missiles and served as their potential launch sites during the Soviet era, in an apparent move to prepare his country to host the Russian nukes.
Still, according to Putin, Russia will build a special storage facility for its tactical weapons in Belarus, the construction of which will end by the beginning of July.
