Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Saturday. An agreement with Belarus for the deployment of nuclear weapons tactics on the territory of that country that shares a border with Ukraine.
“There is nothing extraordinary here. First of all, The US has been doing this for decades.. It placed its tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of NATO countries, allied countries in Europe, long ago. If I remember correctly, in six countries: Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Greece,” he said.
Putin, such an agreement Does not violate Russia’s non-proliferation obligations He announced that on April 3, the Belarusian army would start training, and on July 1, the construction of the silo, where the said weapons would be deployed in the neighboring country, would be completed.
“We are not handing them over. The United States is not leaving them to its allies.”
He realized that The announcement was triggered by Britain’s decision to supply depleted uranium ammunition to the Ukrainian army.Although London assures that this is not about nuclear weapons.
“Whatever it is, it’s about nuclear technology. It’s obvious,” Putin replied this Saturday.
However, Putin immediately recalled that the President of Belarus, Alexandr Lukashenko, long ago demanded that such weapons be deployed on the territory of the former Soviet republic.
He reminded that Moscow has supplied Iskender tactical missiles to Minsk, and these are also capable of carrying nuclear loads.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Minsk of being complicit in the current military action, but Lukashenko is hiding behind NATO militarizing its borders.
The Russian leader admitted that British ammunition is not considered a weapon of mass destruction, but that it is a weapon. “The most dangerous”especially since it creates a highly polluting radioactive cloud after impact.
“I must say that Russia, of course, has something to retaliate. Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of these bullets. We have not used them yet,” he said.
In response, he acknowledged that Western weapons posed a “threat” to Russia, but warned: only prolongs the conflict and “it will only lead to a great tragedy, nothing more.”
In this regard, he assured that the Russian military industry produces three times more ammunition than before, while the United States produces about 15,000 rounds per year, an unattainable figure for other Western powers, and 42,000 rounds in the next year, when Ukrainian troops spend 5,000 rounds per day.
When the “arsonists”, alluding to the Western countries, will supply Kiev with “420 or 440 tanks”, Russia announced that it plans to manufacture and modernize more than 1,600 tanks.
“The total volume of tanks in the Russian Army will be three times the number of tanks in the Ukrainian Army. More than three times,” he said.
Putin warned on Tuesday that Moscow would have to react if Ukraine used weapons with a “nuclear component”.
UK Under Secretary of Defense Anabell Goldie responded to a question on the UK Parliament’s website on Monday from Lord Hylton, a member of the House of Lords, about the possibility of sending these shells to Ukraine.
“In addition to sending a fleet of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, we will supply the shells with depleted uraniumGoldie noted that they are more effective at destroying armored vehicles.
British Ministry of Defense yesterday accused Russia of “misinformation” because it said depleted uranium munitions contained “nuclear components”..
A spokesperson for that ministry pointed out that “the British Army has used depleted uranium in its armor-piercing projectiles for decades” and that “it is a standard component and has nothing to do with nuclear weapons or capabilities”.