Russia to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Vladimir Putin announces – RT in French

In response to London’s supply of depleted uranium shells to kyiv, Russia plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Vladimir Putin recalled that Washington did the same with its allies.

Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 25.

“The reason for this is the statement by the British Deputy Minister of Defense indicating that his country was going to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukraine,” argued the head of state. However, the Russian president added that “even outside the context of these events”, his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko had “for a long time” raised the question of the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.

In addition, Vladimir Poutine made a point of underlining that this deployment of weapons was nothing new on the global level: There is nothing new here either. First of all, the United States has been doing it for decades. They long ago deployed tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies, the NATO countries in Europe, in six countries”. Accordingly, Moscow and Minsk agreed “to do the same”, in the words of Vladimir Putin, “without violating [leurs] international non-proliferation obligations”.

“From April 3, we start training the crews. And on July 1, we will complete the construction of a special warehouse for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus,” the Russian leader said.

On March 20, the British army confirmed that it was delivering shells containing depleted uranium to kyiv. “These munitions are very effective in destroying modern tanks and armored vehicles,” said Deputy Defense Minister Annabel Goldie, adding that they could be used by the Challenger 2 tanks which will be supplied to the Ukrainian army.

A defensive Russian nuclear doctrine

Since the launch of the Russian military operation in Ukraine – which Kiev and its allies denounce as a war of invasion – senior Russian officials have repeatedly recalled that their country’s nuclear doctrine was geared towards its protection.

Thus, at the beginning of October, the head of Russian diplomacy had stressed that Russia’s policy in terms of nuclear deterrence “presented an exclusively defensive character”. A few months earlier, at the end of March, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had affirmed that Russia would only use nuclear weapons in Ukraine in the event of an “existential threat” against Russia.