Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, President Vladimir Putin stated today.
President Putin said the move would not violate nuclear non-proliferation agreements and compared it to the US stationing its weapons in Europe, according to Russian state media.
Moscow would not be transferring control of its arms to Minsk, he added.
President Putin told Russian state television on Saturday that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Russia will complete the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by 1 July, Putin added. He did not specify when the weapons would be transferred to Belarus. This will mark the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow will have based nuclear arms outside the country.
A small number of Iskander tactical missile systems, which can be used to launch nuclear weapons, have already been transferred to Belarus.
It appears that Putin made this decision, or made it public after Zelensky insistently pleaded for more Western military support.
Earlier this week, 18 countries signed an agreement to supply the war-torn country with at least one million artillery shells over the next year, reports BBC. In an interview with a Japanese newspaper, President Zelensky stated that Ukraine could not launch a potential counter-offensive in the east of the country until further ammunition arrived.
