Putin says Moscow to station nuclear weapons in Belarus for the first time since the 1990s

Russia volition presumption tactical atomic weapons successful neighboring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said connected Saturday, marking the archetypal clip since the mid-1990s that Moscow volition person based specified arms extracurricular the country.

Putin made the announcement astatine a clip of increasing tensions with the West implicit the Ukraine warfare and arsenic immoderate Russian commentators speculate astir imaginable atomic strikes.

Putin told authorities tv that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had agelong raised the contented of stationing tactical atomic weapons successful his country, which borders NATO subordinate Poland.

"There is thing antithetic present either: firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They person agelong deployed their tactical atomic weapons connected the territory of their allied countries," helium said.

"We agreed that we volition bash the aforesaid — without violating our obligations, I emphasize, without violating our planetary obligations connected the nonproliferation of atomic weapons."

Putin did not specify erstwhile the weapons would beryllium transferred to Belarus. "Tactical" atomic weapons notation to those utilized for circumstantial gains connected the battlefield.

Russia volition person completed the operation of a retention installation for tactical atomic weapons successful Belarus by July 1, Putin said, adding that Moscow would not really beryllium transferring power of the arms to Minsk.

The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon did not instantly instrumentality messages seeking comment.

Russia has stationed 10 craft successful Belarus susceptible of carrying tactical atomic weapons, helium said, adding that Moscow had already transferred to Belarus a fig of Iskander tactical rocket systems that tin beryllium utilized to motorboat atomic weapons.

When the Soviet Union collapsed successful 1991, atomic weapons were deployed successful the 4 newly-independent states of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

In May 1992, the 4 states agreed each the weapons should beryllium based successful Russia and the transportation of warheads from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan was completed successful 1996.