Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after special storage facilities are ready on July 7-8, President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday during a meeting in Sochi, Reuters reported.

“So everything is according to plan, everything is stable,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin’s statement.

The leaders of the two countries previously agreed on a plan to place Russian short-range land-based missiles on the territory of Moscow’s close ally, where they will remain under Russian command.

In March, the head of the Kremlin announced the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.

But Belarusian President Oleksandr Lukashenko has announced since the end of May that Russia has begun transferring nuclear weapons to his country, concretizing a development announced in March by Vladimir Putin, France Presse reported, citing Agerpres.

“The transfer of nuclear loads has begun, it has already begun,” Lukashenko said in response to a Russian journalist, according to a video posted on the official Telegram account of Belarusian President Pul Pervo.

Lukashenko explained that Putin had told him the day before that he had signed a decree allowing this transfer.

Such a move would not violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Putin argued in March, saying the United States had also placed nuclear weapons on the territory of European allies.

“There is nothing unusual here: firstly, the USA 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 raised the issue of deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin noted at the time.

NATO criticized Moscow for its “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric after Vladimir Putin said Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Reuters writes.

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