NATO has expressed its strong condemnation of Russia’s decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, calling it “dangerous” and “irresponsible”.
The military alliance stated that it is closely monitoring the situation and that the move will not cause it to change its own nuclear strategy.
The US has also commented on the development, stating that it does not believe Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons.
Ukraine, which shares a long border with Belarus, as well as with NATO members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to address the potential threat of President Putin’s announcement on Saturday.
President Putin said that Moscow would not be transferring control of its arms to Minsk and that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a firm ally of the Kremlin, had long raised the issue with him.
Ukraine accuses Russia of violating nuclear non-proliferation agreements with this move, an accusation that President Putin has denied, instead comparing it to the US stationing its weapons in Europe.
NATO described Russia’s reference to nuclear sharing as “misleading” and accused Russia of consistently breaking its own arms control commitments.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Belarus to opt out of the deal with Putin, warning the country could face further sanctions if it went through with it.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Russia’s deployment of nuclear weapons in her country “grossly contradicts the will of the Belarusian people” and would make it a potential target for retaliatory strikes.
Experts believe that the risk of escalation to nuclear war following the announcement remains “extremely low”.
This will be the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow will have based nuclear arms outside the country.
Russia will start training crews to operate the weapons from next week, and the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be completed by 1 July, according to President Putin.
