US and European officials believe Vladimir Putin has no intention of transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus anytime soon, three senior officials briefed on discussions following Moscow’s latest threat said.

On Saturday, Putin announced that he plans to ship weapons across the border for storage at a facility under construction that will be ready in July. If this happens, then for the first time since the 1990s, Russia’s nuclear weapons will be outside its territory.

Putin did not specify a time, but Western officials said they had no evidence that he was going to launch missions in the near future. “It looks like the Russian president threatened to try to shake up the Ukrainians and divert attention from the Kremlin’s losses on the battlefield,” they argued. officials cited by Politico.

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had no indication – such as satellite imagery or other information – that Russia was advancing an immediate plan to develop nuclear weapons.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby made similar comments to reporters on Monday. “We have not seen any movement of tactical nuclear weapons or anything like that since this announcement, and we certainly do not have any indication that the Throne. “Putin made some kind of decision about the use of weapons of mass destruction, not to mention nuclear weapons inside Ukraine,” he said.

A Ukrainian Defense Ministry adviser said the country’s intelligence services were closely monitoring Moscow’s moves, but said Ukrainian troops would continue to focus their efforts on countering Russian forces in the eastern part of the country.

Russia says the capture of Bakhmut will pave the way for full control of the rest of the strategic industrial region of Donbass, which borders Russia and is one of the main targets of the invasion. Ukraine claims that Bakhmut is of limited strategic importance, but nevertheless puts up fierce resistance. Not everyone in Ukraine is convinced that the defense of Bakhmut can continue indefinitely.

The Battle of Bahamut began about seven months ago, but in recent weeks the Russian advance from three sides has left the defenders with only one outlet to the west.

The eventual defeat of the Russians in the region would have serious consequences for the morale of both armies, as the battle for control of the city – the longest and deadliest in Europe since World War II – assumed great symbolic significance, commensurate with the large number of casualties counted by both sides.

However, the British Ministry of Defense warned that the threat of encirclement of Ukrainian troops by the Russians remained. Moreover, in the last assessment of the course of hostilities, he emphasized that in recent days the Russians have achieved success in other sectors of the front, north and south of Bahamut.

Putin’s Constant Threats

Over the past year, Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons several times. In a speech in September, he argued that NATO and the West were engaging in “nuclear blackmail.”

“To those who allow themselves such statements about Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction,” he said. “And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will definitely use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.”

Since then, warnings about Russia’s possible use of nuclear weapons have subsided, and Western officials’ fears of Moscow’s threats have also dissipated. One of the European officials then said that “this is another tactic of intimidation on the part of Putin.”

Source: Politico, Reuters, CNN.