He Russian President Vladimir Putinannounced this Saturday the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in belarus after reaching an agreement with this country that shares a border with Ukraine.
“There is nothing extraordinary here. First of all, the US has been doing it for decades. It placed its tactical nuclear weapons long ago on the territory of its allied countries, the NATO countries, in Europe. If memory serves, in six countries: Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Greece,” he assured in statements to public television 400 days after the invasion that triggered the Ukrainian War.
Putin already warned this Tuesday that Moscow will be seen forced to react in case Ukraine uses weapons with “nuclear component”.
Does not violate nuclear non-proliferation obligations
Putin stressed that such an agreement does not violate Russia’s nuclear non-proliferation obligations and announced that on April 3 the training of the Belarusian military will begin and on July 1 the construction of a silo to place said weapons in the neighboring country.
“We do not cede them. The United States does not cede them to its allies either,” he added, specifying that Moscow has already modernized the planes of the Belarusian Air Force to carry these weapons.
Putin’s excuse
He acknowledged that the trigger for the ad was the decision of the United Kingdom to supply the Ukrainian army with ammunition containing depleted uranium, although London assures that it is not about nuclear weapons. “Be that as it may, that is related to nuclear technology. It is something obvious,” Putin replied today.
The British Ministry of Defense United Kingdom yesterday accused Russia of “misinforming” for saying that depleted uranium ammunition has a “nuclear component.”
A spokesman for this ministry pointed out that “the British Army has used depleted uranium in its armor-piercing shells for decades” and it is a standard component and it has nothing to do with nuclear weapons or capabilities.”
Petition of the Belarusian president
Immediately afterwards, Putin recalled that the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenkohad long ago requested the deployment of this type of weapon on the soil of the former Soviet republic and recalled that Moscow had already supplied Minsk with Iskander tactical missiles and that these are also capable of carrying nuclear charges.
For this reason, Ukraine accused Minsk on numerous occasions of being an accomplice in the current military campaign, although Lukashenko hides behind the militarization of its borders by NATO.
The Russian leader acknowledged that the British ammunition is not considered a weapon of mass destruction, but It is a “most dangerous” weapon, especially because it creates a highly polluting radioactive cloud after impact. “I must say that Russia, of course, has something to respond with. Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of those shells. We have not used them yet,” he said.
President Putin admitted that Western weaponry poses “a threat” to Russiabut warned that it will only prolong the conflict and “only lead to a great tragedy, nothing more.”
Tripled ammo production
In this regard, he assured that the Russian military industry produces three times more ammo than beforewhile the US produces about 15,000 projectiles a year, an unattainable figure for other Western powers, and next year 42,000, when the Ukrainian troops spend 5,000 projectiles daily.
He announced that Russia plans manufacture and modernize more than 1,600 tankswhen the “arsonists”, alluding to Western countries, will supply kyiv with “420 or 440 tanks.”
“The total volume of tanks in the Russian army will be three times higher than the number of tanks in the Ukrainian Army. Even more than three times,” he noted.
