2023-12-26 19:18:07
Russia has completed the delivery of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko announced on Tuesday. The news raises concerns among the international community, as the Belarusian president had previously said that the transfer of nuclear weapons to his country was linked to efforts to limit threats from NATO member Poland in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Alexander Lukashenko made a shock announcement this Tuesday during a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, bringing together nine of the fifteen former Soviet republics, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Belarusian president said deliveries of Russian tactical nuclear weapons were completed in October. However, he did not specify the exact number of nuclear weapons delivered or their location.
Nuclear weapons movement in May
Confirmation of the completion of these deliveries comes several months after the announcement that some tactical nuclear weapons were being sent from Russia to Belarus, an ally of Vladimir Putin. Mr Lukashenko confirmed last May that “the movement of nuclear weapons” had “already started”, which sparked concern in the United States and other Western countries.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also spoke out the same month on the nuclear weapons movement. “The West is essentially waging an undeclared war against our countries,” he said. According to him, Western countries are “trying to prolong and intensify the armed conflict in Ukraine”.
In June, Mr. Putin confirmed that the first delivery of nuclear weapons had reached Belarus. The Russian president was then asked about the reasons for sending nuclear weapons to Belarus and whether Russia was considering the possibility of using them. “Why should we threaten the whole world?” he replied. “I have already said that resorting to extreme measures is possible in case of danger to the Russian state. According to Mr. Putin, the delivery to Belarus should serve as a reminder to all other nations “who think they are inflicting a strategic defeat on us.”
According to Mr. Lukashenko, the transfer of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus aims to deter Poland, a NATO member, which supports Ukraine on military, humanitarian and political levels.
25 underground facilities?
Containers that do not emit radiation have been used to transfer nuclear weapons to Belarus without the West’s knowledge, according to Aliaksandr Alesin, an independent military analyst in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. “They fit easily into a regular Il-76 transport plane,” he said last July, as reports of the shipments mounted. “There are dozens of flights per day and it is very difficult to find that special flight.”
According to Alesin, Belarus has 25 underground facilities – built during the Cold War – for nuclear-armed missiles that can withstand missile attacks. “Only five or six of these depots can actually store tactical nuclear weapons, but the Belarusian army operates in all 25 depots in order to deceive Western intelligence services, because then it is more difficult for them to know exactly which depots are located nuclear weapons.”
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