Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov on Sunday called the reaction of Western countries to Russia’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus “hysterical”.

“The collective West seems unwilling to bring up the subject of American nuclear weapons stationed here in Europe around our country in any way, but chooses to hysterically react to our plans to build silos to store tactical nuclear weapons within the country. the territory of Belarus,” he said in an interview, reports EFE and Agerpres.

Earlier this week, a spokesman for the Russian president admitted that the intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is a response to NATO expansion.

“The alliance is expanding to the border with Russia, not Russia is getting closer to NATO,” Peskov said, commenting on Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance.

In turn, the Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, Oleksandr Volfovichi, ruled out the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“Quantity is not important, quality and the ability to use them are important. And we know what we have to do… (But) I don’t think we will end up using them,” he said, according to the official BelTA news agency.

Volfovich emphasized that nuclear weapons, tactical or strategic, are intended to deter and “guarantee the security of Russia and Belarus.”

As for the terms, he admitted that this decision should be made by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

Earlier, Putin announced agreements with Minsk on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, for which Belarusian specialists began training on April 4.

___

• Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro