TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Russia and Belarus on Thursday signed an agreement formalizing the stationing of Moscow’s tactical nuclear weapons on their ally’s territory, but control of the weapons will remain with the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mission The introduction of shorter-range weapons in Belarus earlier this year was a move widely seen as a warning to the West, which is increasing its military support to Ukraine.
When the guns would be used was not announced, but Putin said the construction of storage facilities for them in Belarus will be completed by July 1.
Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via Associated Press
It is also unclear how many nuclear weapons would remain in Belarus. The US government believes Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, including bombs that can be carried by aircraft, short-range missile warheads and artillery shells.
Tactical nuclear weapons are designed to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield. They have a relatively short range and much lower explosive yield than nuclear warheads, which are built into long-range strategic missiles and are capable of wiping out entire cities.
The signing of the agreement comes as Russia prepares for Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive. Both Russian and Belarusian officials also described the move as a result of Western hostility.
“The use of non-strategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policies of countries unfriendly to us,” Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Chrenin said in Minsk at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, it was decided to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” Shoigu added.
Putin argued that Russia had followed the US lead in stationing its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, noting that the US had stationed nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya condemned the move.
“We must do everything we can to prevent Putin’s plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, as this will ensure Russian control of Belarus for years to come,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press. “This will further endanger the security of Ukraine and all of Europe.”
Independent Belarusian military analyst Aliaksandr Alesin said about two-thirds of Russia’s arsenal of intermediate-range nuclear missiles were stored in Belarus during the Cold War, adding that there were dozens of Soviet-era storage facilities that could still be used.
Soviet nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were transferred to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 in a US-brokered deal.
“Documents in Minsk on the return of nuclear weapons were signed defiantly just as Ukraine declared a counteroffensive and Western countries are handing arms to Kiev,” Alesin told the AP.
“This Belarusian nuclear balcony should spoil the mood for politicians in the West, as nuclear missiles are capable of covering Ukraine, all of Poland, the Baltic states and parts of Germany.”
Khrenin also announced plans to “expand the combat potential of the regional grouping of Russian and Belarusian troops,” including the transfer to the Minsk missile system of the Iskander-M missile system capable of carrying a nuclear charge and the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system.
Russia and Belarus have an alliance agreement under which the Kremlin subsidizes the Belarusian economy through loans and discounted Russian oil and gas volumes. Russia used Belarusian territory as a base for invading neighboring Ukraine and maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.
