Belarus has included the use of nuclear weapons in its military doctrine, Minsk-based Defense Minister Viktor Grenin told the media on Tuesday, quoted by the DPA and Agerpres agencies.
He argued that in view of the “exacerbation of external threats” it is necessary to “review” the rules in force since 2016. The minister did not provide details on the possible use of nuclear weapons.
On February 28, 2022, shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belarus amended its Constitution to renounce its status as a nuclear-free country. However, the referendum on amendments to the Basic Law was announced even before the start of the war in Ukraine, against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Minsk and the West, as well as neighboring states.
The European Union does not recognize the results of the presidential election in August 2020, in which the electoral authorities in Minsk announced that Oleksandr Lukashenko won 80% of the vote.
The USA and Great Britain also do not recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus and, like the EU, have imposed sanctions against his regime.
Russia has deployed nuclear weapons in Belarus
Russia, an ally of Belarus, deployed tactical nuclear missiles on the territory of the former Soviet republic last year amid escalating tensions with NATO over its invasion of Ukraine.
“This is the first part. But by the end of the summer, by the end of the year, we will complete this action,” President Vladimir Putin said on June 16 last year.
He insisted that Russia was meeting its non-proliferation obligations by maintaining arms control, but training Belarusian troops to “store and use special tactical munitions”.
Russia has previously announced that it intends to keep some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, but will retain full control over them.
Alexander Lukashenko, in turn, in an interview broadcast on Russian television last summer, said that his country had begun to receive Russian tactical nuclear weapons and that some of them were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. in 1945.
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Source: Hot News
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