Ukraine accuses Russia of taking Belarus “hostage” by sending tactical nuclear weapons

Ukraine accused on Sunday Russia to take as “hostage” to belarus following the announcement that Moscow will deploy tactical nuclear missiles in this allied territory, located at the gates of the European Union (EU).

For a year now, the Russian authorities have multiplied thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons if there is an escalation in the conflict with Ukraine.

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The Russian President, Vladimir Putinannounced on Saturday that it was going to deploy nuclear weapons “tactics” in belarus –with borders with Latvia, Lithuania and Polandthree countries of the EU and the NATO— and that 10 planes have already been equipped to use these types of weapons.

“The Kremlin has taken Belarus hostage nuclear”, tweeted this Sunday the secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, Oleksii Danilovwho considered that the decision is “a step towards the internal destabilization of the country”.

For the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podoliakthe Russian president admits, with this measure, that “he is afraid of losing (the war) and that all he can do is be scary”.

In announcing the deployment, Putin claimed that USA I was already doing the same.

“There is nothing unusual here: the United States has been doing this for decades: it has long deployed tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its allies.”, he said in an interview broadcast on Russian television.

“Nuclear intimidation”

“We have decided to do the same”, he added, assuring that he already had the approval of the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko.

Putin pointed out, however, that the deployment would be done “without violating our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation”.

Germany denounced this initiative on Sunday, “a new attempt at nuclear intimidation” of Russia, and affirmed that Belarus is going against its commitment to remain a territory without nuclear weapons.

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Moscow will start training crews on April 3 and plans to finish construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus on July 1, Putin said.

Although Minsk is not directly involved in the conflict with Ukraine, Moscow has used its territory to carry out its offensive last year or to carry out shelling, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

uranium shells

Putin decided to send this type of nuclear weapon to this former Soviet republic after the United Kingdom mentioned the possibility of delivering depleted uranium shells to Ukraine.

The Russian president threatened to resort to this type of projectiles if kyiv received this material.

“Russia, of course, has something to respond with. We have, without exaggeration, tens of thousands of such shells. At the moment we have not used themPutin declared.

These are weapons thatcan be classified as the most harmful and dangerous for humans (…) and for the environment”, he warned.

The use of depleted uranium ammunition implies toxic risks for the military and the population of the areas where it is used.

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In the recent negotiations in Moscow between Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinpingboth rulers declared in a joint communiqué that a nuclear war “should never declare” because “there can be no winners”.

But several Russian officials, including the former president Dmitry Medvedevhave threatened to use a nuclear weapon on multiple occasions since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin last month suspended Russia’s participation in the nuclear disarmament treaty new START that it had signed with the United States, although it promised to respect the limits of its nuclear arsenal until the effective end of the agreement, on February 5, 2026.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.