Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country has already started receiving nuclear weapons from Russia, some of which are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in 1945.
“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with Russian state television. “The bombs are three times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he added, quoted by Reuters.
At a summit with Russia in March, it was decided to deploy the weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia will retain control of tactical nuclear weapons and deploy them in Belarus once dedicated storage facilities are ready.
The United States and China, on the other hand, say they are alert to these arms movements.
According to Lukashenko, his country had numerous Soviet-era nuclear storage facilities and has restored five or six of them. Although the weapons are under Russian control, the Belarusian leader does not see this as an obstacle to using them if necessary.
Belarus has allowed itself to be used by Russian forces to attack Ukraine as part of what Moscow calls a “special military operation”. It also says the nuclear deployment will act as a deterrent against potential aggressors.
“We have always been a target,” Lukashenko said. “They (the West) have wanted to tear us apart since 2020. No one has fought against a nuclear country, a country that has nuclear weapons, until now.”
Source: DN
