The UN Security Council plans to hold an extraordinary meeting in connection with Russia’s plans to deploy nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. The United States Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Robert Wood, said the meeting would take place on March 28 or 29.
“The meeting will be held tomorrow or Wednesday,” Wood said. Ukraine applied to the Security Council requesting such a meeting. Kiev announced the need to prevent the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, said the country was “always ready for any kind of meeting”. “If it is planned, then of course we are ready. “We have something to say at this meeting,” Nebenzya said.
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry described the Western response as “inadequate” to Moscow’s decision to plant nuclear weapons in a neighboring state.
“The inadequate reaction of some Western capitals to the decisions on the development of our cooperation in the military nuclear field with Belarus can be nothing but bewilderment,” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to him, “facts show that it was NATO countries that coined the concept of so-called ‘joint nuclear missions’ and continued to follow it for decades.” He also stated that the USA has modernized the nuclear bombs and their carriers used in these missions.
“At the heart of this concept are US nuclear weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey,” said Zakharova.
At the same time, according to him, “all these years Russia showed maximum restraint”, but in the conditions of “total hybrid war” it was “naive” to expect Moscow not to take retaliatory measures.
Zakharova stressed that “we are officially talking about the Union State, which is a common military doctrine, and the security measures that the Union State takes on its own national territory.”
disagreement with Washington
Washington’s response to Russia’s intention to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus was also criticized by Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov. Saying on March 27 that the United States condemned Russia’s decision, she described the words of Deputy State Department Spokesperson Vedanta Patel as “a prime example of hypocrisy”.
The State Department now believes that “no other country has done so much damage to arms control” and has undermined strategic stability in Europe more than Russia.
“The memory of US officials is extremely short. It is Washington that has long and systematically destroyed the legal basis of bilateral relations in the stratosphere,” Antonov said.
She repeated Zakharova’s words that the military of European countries, where the US nuclear weapons are located, are conducting operations on the use of special ammunition, and that in the near future American air bombs will be “replaced with a new modern version.”
“Management [США] Antonov, without shame, without turning to internationally recognized structures, conveys a thought to everyone: everything is allowed to the USA, and nothing is allowed to the rest, especially Russia, ”says Antonov.
Where can nuclear weapons be placed?
Meanwhile, foreign and Russian experts are trying to find out exactly where a nuclear weapons storage facility could be located in Belarus. According to Vladimir Putin, its construction is scheduled to be completed by July 1.
In conversation with the broadcast “Kommersant” Pavel Podvig, Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations Disarmament Research Institute and Director of the Strategic Nuclear Weapons Project for Russia, reminded that there were storage facilities for nuclear weapons in Belarus during the Soviet period.
“But I highly doubt they are kept in a state that would allow them to be put in order faster than building a new one,” said the expert.
He also believes that both the redevelopment and construction of a new storage facility can be seen in satellite images, but no one has yet explored the construction process. The expert recalled that in December 2022, Moscow announced that it does not plan to place nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.
According to the analyst, building a new storage facility in three months is “extremely difficult, if not impossible.”
“It’s a pretty complex engineering object. At least it should be a perimeter, a fortified bunker,” said the expert. At the same time, he said, “you can build anything, you can call it a warehouse, but nothing can be stored there until now.”
The analyst did not rule out that while Russia may delay the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, it is important at this stage for Russian officials to send a political signal to the West.
On March 25, Vladimir Putin announced that, at the request of Minsk, Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and train military personnel. According to the president, the construction of a storage facility for these weapons will be completed on July 1. Putin expressed confidence that Moscow did not violate its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. such weapons or explosive devices directly or indirectly.
Earlier, Moscow transferred the Iskander missile system, which could be a carrier of nuclear weapons, to Minsk and helped to re-equip 10 Belarusian aircraft.
While the European Union described Moscow’s decision as “irresponsible escalation” that could lead to sanctions, NATO did not see any change in Russia’s nuclear potential.