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 readjust our nuclear policy. There are no indications that Russia is preparing to use weapons,” said the head of US diplomacy.
Blinken argued that the transfer of these types of weapons to Belarus is yet another “provocation” by the Kremlin and an “irresponsible decision” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom he accuses of ceding sovereignty to the neighboring country.
The 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 atomic weapons.
Blinken recalled that both Ukraine and Belarus voluntarily gave up their nuclear weapons when the Soviet Union disintegrated.
This Friday, Putin announced that Russia has transferred the first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
“The first nuclear warheads were launched on the territory of Belarus,” Putin said, speaking 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.
The defense ministers of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, and of Belarus, Viktor Khrenin, signed at the end of May, in Minsk, the documents regulating the storage of non-strategic nuclear weapons on the territory of the former Soviet Republic.
Source: TSF
