Łukašenka: deployment of Russian nukes to be completed by end of 2023

July 6, BPN. Alaksandr Łukašenka has said that the placement of Russian nuclear warheads in Belarus will be completed by the end of 2023, after Vladimir Putin announced earlier this year that he will send some of them to the previously non-nuclear country.

Łukašenka told foreign reporters in Minsk that nuclear storage facilities were prepared a month ago.

He reiterated his claim that most of the arsenal intended for Belarus has already been delivered, according to his press office.

He also claimed that the warheads have been deployed “not by land” to make it difficult for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany or exiled opposition members to trace them.

The authoritarian ruler underscored that the arsenal is purely defensive, and that the decision to use it would be made in consultation with Moscow.

Ukraine cannot confirm that the first batch of Russian nuclear warheads has been delivered to Belarus, a Ukrainian general said yesterday.