US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called Russia’s delivery of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus a “provocation” but urged caution and ruled out a nuclear response from Washington.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and cautiously. We have no reason to adjust our nuclear policy. There are no indications that Russia is preparing to use weapons,” said the chief of US diplomacy.
Blinken argued that the transfer of this type of weapon to Belarus is yet another “provocation” on the part of the Kremlin and an “irresponsible decision” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom he accuses of transferring sovereignty to the neighboring country. to give up.
US Secretary of State said it was ironic that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is placing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus when one of the pretexts he used for the invasion of Ukraine was precisely to prevent Kiev from being equipped with nuclear weapons .
Blinken recalled that both Ukraine and Belarus voluntarily gave up their nuclear weapons when the Soviet Union fell apart.
This Friday (16) Putin announced that Russia has transferred the first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
“The first nuclear warheads were delivered to the territory of Belarus,” Putin said during a speech at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.
The transfer of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to the neighboring country was announced in March by Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.
At the end of May in Minsk, the defense ministers of Russia, Serguei Shoigu, and Belarus, Viktor Khrenin, signed the documents regulating the storage of non-strategic nuclear weapons on the territory of the former Soviet republic.
Source: DN
