Kremlin doubtful about Łukašenka’s offer to pile up and destroy all nukes

April 7, BPN. Moscow’s plan to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus does not require a review of Russia’s nuclear doctrine, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin has said.

Dmitry Peskov was speaking to reporters in Moscow on April 7, according to TASS.

Commenting on Alaksandr Łukašenka’s suggestion that all of the world’s nuclear weapons be “put in one pile over a certain period of time and destroyed,” Peskov expressed doubt that the world has “the aggregate potential to come to a common agreement” that these weapons should be abandoned.

In March, Vladimir Putin said a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus by July 1. “We don’t pass [nuclear weapons to Belarus]. And the USA does not pass them to its allies. Basically, we do everything that it has been doing for decades. It has them in certain allied countries, preparing their carriers and their crews,” he said.

On April 2, Moscow’s envoy to Belarus said the storage facility would be located near the Russian-Belarusian union’s western border.

One day later, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin’s announcement was aimed at undermining support for Ukraine from the bloc and its partners. NATO closely watches Russia’s activities, but “so far we haven’t seen any changes in their nuclear posture that requires any change in our nuclear posture,” he stressed.