NATO criticized Moscow on Sunday for its “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric after Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Reuters reports. Ukrainian officials also responded by urgently calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

While this is not unexpected, and Putin has argued that the decision will not violate nuclear non-proliferation pledges, it is one of Russia’s clearest nuclear signals in the 13 months since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Putin compared his plans to the U.S. placing its weapons in Europe and said Russia would not hand control of nuclear bombs to Belarus. But still, this will be the first time since the mid-1990s that Russia has kept such weapons outside the country.

• “NATO is vigilant and we are closely monitoring the situation. We have not observed any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would force us to adjust our own position,” said a NATO spokesman.

According to him, Putin’s comparison with NATO regarding the deployment of nuclear weapons is “absolutely false.”

• “NATO allies are acting in full compliance with their international obligations. Russia has consistently violated its arms control obligations, recently suspending its participation in the New SNA Treaty.”

Reaction of Ukraine

Ukraine also reacted and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council due to Russia’s statement on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

• “Ukraine expects effective actions from Great Britain, China, the USA and France to counter the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail…
• To this end, we demand the immediate convening of an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said.

Earlier, the Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, said that Russia had taken Belarus as a “nuclear hostage”.

• “The Kremlin has taken Belarus as a nuclear hostage,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine, wrote on Twitter, adding that this decision is “a step towards the internal destabilization of the country.”

Statement by Vladimir Putin / “We are not handing them control over nuclear weapons”

Russia has reached an agreement with neighboring Belarus to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on its territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, the official TASS news agency reported, citing Reuters and AFP.

Such a move would not violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Putin argued, noting that the United States has also placed nuclear weapons on the territory of European allies.

• “There is nothing unusual here: firstly, the US has been doing it for decades. They placed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies a long time ago,” Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Russian television.

President of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko has long been raising the issue of deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin noted at the time.

• “We agreed (with Lukashenko) that we will do the same,” Putin said, announcing that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
• “Without violating our obligations, I emphasize, without violating our international obligations regarding the nuclear non-proliferation regime,” said the Russian president, quoted by the TASS agency.

What is nuclear non-proliferation?

The nuclear non-proliferation regime that Putin talked about is an international treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons while keeping them away from countries that do not yet possess them.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was signed in 1968 by dozens of countries, including the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain.

Vladimir Putin insisted that the weapons stationed in Belarus would continue to be under Russian control.

However, the head of the Kremlin did not specify when the weapons will be transferred to Belarus.

According to Putin, Russia must complete the construction of a storage of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by July 1, while the head of the Kremlin emphasized that Moscow will not actually transfer control of these weapons to Minsk.

• “From April 3, we start training crews. And on July 1, we will finish the construction of a special storage of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus,” he said.

According to Putin, Russia already has 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons.

Why did Putin make such a decision?

Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow’s decision was motivated by London’s desire to send depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine.

The head of the Kremlin threatened that Russia may resort to this type of projectiles if Ukraine receives such ammunition.

• “Russia, of course, has something to answer for. We have, without exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of such shells. We are not using them yet,” said the President of the Russian Federation.

Although the Kremlin has never publicly confirmed it, the West has long said Russia keeps nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad, its exclave on the Baltic Sea coast between NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania.