{"id":15586,"date":"2023-05-27T10:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=15586"},"modified":"2023-05-28T01:10:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T22:10:32","slug":"russia-signs-documents-to-finalize-deployment-of-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/russia-signs-documents-to-finalize-deployment-of-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-belarus\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia signs documents to finalize deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with his Belarusian counterpart Victor Khrenin in Minsk on May 25, 2023, to sign documents in order to finalize Russia\u2019s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,\u201d Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during the document signing ceremony. This is the first time that the Kremlin is finalizing plans to deploy its nuclear weapons outside Russian territory since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoigu announced that Iskander-M missiles, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, had been handed to the Belarusian armed forces, and some Su-25 aircraft had been converted for the possible use of nuclear weapons. \u201cBelarusian servicemen have received the necessary training in Russian training centers,\u201d Shoigu said. He added that Moscow will retain control over the weapons and any decisions on their use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in the neighboring ally country of Belarus. Moscow\u2019s deployment is being perceived as another nuclear threat by the NATO allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin compared Russia\u2019s deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus to the U.S.\u2019s deployment of similar weapons in Europe, stating that the move does not violate Russia\u2019s nuclear non-proliferation obligations. Russia has helped Belarus upgrade 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads. The Russian air force has also been training Belarusian pilots to fly the re-configured planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko (L) watch training launches of ballistic missiles as part of the Grom-2022 Strategic Deterrence Force exercise, from the situational center of the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow on Feb. 19, 2022. (Image Credit: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Belarus)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is nothing unusual here, first of all, the U.S. has been doing this for decades,\u201d Putin said during an interview last month. \u201cThey placed their tactical nuclear weapons in six different allied NATO countries in Europe. We have agreed to do the same thing, without, I stress, violating our international non-proliferation obligations,\u201d the Russian president stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus shares a border with Russia on its east and Ukraine on its west. Russian forces used Belarus as a launchpad to initiate an attack on Ukraine\u2019s northern regions in February 2022. Deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would fulfill Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s longstanding request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has so far played down the Russian move. A senior U.S. administration official indicated the West does not consider the Russian move as any signal that it plans to use nuclear weapons. The official said, \u201cWe have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon. We remain committed to the collective defense of the NATO alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Russian Iskander-M dual-capable missile system on display on September 8, 2016. (Image Credit: Vitaly V. Kuzmin\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with his Belarusian counterpart Victor Khrenin in Minsk on May 25, 2023, to sign documents in order to finalize Russia\u2019s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[147,6,357,5,31,108,20,63],"class_list":["post-15586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-belarus","tag-defense","tag-europe","tag-military","tag-missile","tag-nuclear","tag-russia","tag-weapons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Belarus-defense-ministers.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-43o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15593,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586\/revisions\/15593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}