Moscow and Minsk sign deal on nuclear weapons deployment in Belarus

The defense ministers of Russia and Belarus on Thursday signed a document on the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported.

Moscow will retain control over the weapons and any decisions on their use, TASS quoted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.

The defense ministers of the two dictatorial regimes #Shoigu and #Khrenin signed documents on the deployment of #Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in #Belarus.

Shoigu said that control over these weapons remains with Russia, as well as the decision to use them.

Earlier,… pic.twitter.com/8VKWQgMAzj

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Russia and Belarus, which have been close allies going as far as the Treaty on the Creation of Union State of Russia and Belarus in 1999, agreed earlier this year to deploy a portion of Moscow’s tactical nuclear arsenal in Belarus.

According to Putin, Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka had previously requested the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

At the end of March, in an annual address to lawmakers and government officials, Lukashenka said Moscow’s plans to station nuclear arms on its territory could help give protection to Belarus, which he said was under threat from the West.

Following that announcement, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, accused Putin of “escalating Russia’s dangerous and destabilizing behavior” with his threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Russian propaganda

Separately, Russian media reported Shoigu as saying the West was waging an “undeclared war” against Russia and Belarus.

“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” Shoigu told TASS.