– If Russia implements the deployment of short-range nuclear weapons in Belarus, it will be yet another irresponsible action from Russia in the ongoing war against Ukraine. This is what State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson says to news. Today, the Tass news agency stated that Russia will begin deploying tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus in July. It is the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who is said to have made the message during a meeting with his Belarusian colleague in Sochi. – It will also be a signal of weakness, adds Petersson. – The large Russian losses on the ground in Ukraine have given nuclear weapons increased importance in Russian rhetoric. SIGNS OF WEAKNESS: State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that the statements about nuclear weapons in the invasion of Ukraine show that Russia is struggling on the front. Photo: Sturlason In May, Russia and Belarus signed an agreement on the deployment of the weapons. Authorities in Minsk said at the time that Belarusian soldiers had received training in the use of the Iskander system, which can fire missiles with nuclear warheads. Belarus, led by President Aleksandr Lukashenko, is a staunch ally of Russia. The authorities in the country have allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory for the invasion of Ukraine. A response to the West Already last summer, Putin promised to place nuclear weapons in Belarus to respond to so-called aggression from the West. In a Russian television interview on Sunday, he confirmed the plan. There he said that ten Belarusian warplanes have already been fitted to carry Russian nuclear weapons. He also said that a storage facility for the warheads will be ready by July 1. The US has been doing this for decades, Putin said, insisting the plan was no different from the US practice of placing nuclear weapons in allied countries. Western officials rejected it. In response to Putin’s comments, a NATO spokesperson, Oana Lungescu, said on Sunday that “we have not seen any changes in Russia’s position on nuclear weapons that would lead us to adjust our own.” But she called Putin’s rhetoric “dangerous and irresponsible”. Ukraine called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address “the latest provocation by the criminal Putin regime”. Josep Borrell Fontelles, the EU’s top diplomat for foreign and security policy, said for his part that the bloc “is ready to respond with further sanctions”. Tactical nuclear weapons have never been used in war. They are designed to destroy a military enemy and its equipment on the battlefield. Strategic nuclear weapons, on the other hand, can wipe out entire land areas. Facts about tactical nuclear weapons Tactical nuclear weapons are equipped with warheads with less explosive power than the far more powerful strategic nuclear weapons. Such warheads can be placed on bombs, various types of rockets and missiles, artillery shells, land mines, sinking mines and torpedoes. In contrast to strategic nuclear weapons, which can leave large areas in ruins, tactical nuclear weapons will be able to be used against far more limited military targets in the immediate vicinity. Experts and critics fear that the threshold for using a tactical nuclear weapon is therefore far lower than the threshold for using a strategic nuclear weapon. (Source: NTB)
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Russia deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
