Registration of the recent agreement of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin with its Belarusian counterpart Alexander LukashenkoMoscow and Minsk formalized the deployment of tactics yesterday nuclear weapon on its territory Belarus.

“Given the sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of our countries, we have decided to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” the Russian Defense Minister said. Sergei Shoigu during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Krenin. As specified, control over these weapons will remain in the hands of Moscow. This event provoked a sharp reaction from the opposition to Lukashenka’s authoritarian regime. Exiled Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, opposition candidate in the latest presidential election, said: “We must do everything we can to prevent Putin’s plan to plant nuclear weapons in Belarus, because this will ensure Russia’s control over our country for many years. it will undermine the security of Ukraine and all of Europe.”

Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, which can hit targets thousands of kilometers away, tactical nuclear weapons have a short range and are intended for use on the battlefield. Military analysts link Putin’s decision to install such weapons in Belarus to an expected Ukrainian counterattack to retake the occupied territories. Yesterday, the chief adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had already begun. In a tweet, he said that “dozens of different actions to destroy the Russian occupation forces have already taken place yesterday, today and will continue tomorrow”, adding that one should not expect “one event, on a specific day and time.” .

At the same time, defense ministers of countries backing Ukraine held an online meeting yesterday on the next steps in military assistance. Among other things, they were going to discuss which countries can supply American F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv, which Volodymyr Zelensky is insistently asking for. Over the weekend, US President Joe Biden allowed Washington to provide F-16s from any country that wants it, although the US is not currently considering doing so. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said the Ukrainians would not be able to use the F-16s in their upcoming counterattack. According to a New York Times report citing US intelligence officials, the Americans have concluded that the spectacular drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence agencies. In an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who turns 100 on Saturday, opines that Russia is not solely to blame for the war in Ukraine and criticizes the arrest warrant issued by the International. Criminal Court Court against Vladimir Putin. While he insists on his view that the Bush administration’s attempt to join NATO was a mistake, he believes that, given the new facts, there is no other way but to join after the war is over.