NATO blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin following the latter’s controversial announcement, claiming that he was planning to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
On Sunday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) slammed Vladimir Putin after the Russian President claimed that he would deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
In an official statement, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in response that “Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and irresponsible.”
Lungescu also added that “NATO is vigilant and we are closely monitoring the situation. We may have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own.”
Amid the controversy, the United States released a striking declaration, downplaying Russian President Putin’s dangerous plan.
putin’s statement about placing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus – a step towards internal destabilization of the country – maximizes the level of negative perception and public rejection of russia and putin in Belarusian society. The kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) March 26, 2023
During a recent interview with on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reportedly said, “I can tell you we’ve seen nothing that would indicate Mr. Putin is preparing to use tactical nuclear weapons in any way whatsoever in Ukraine.”
“And I can also tell you that we haven’t seen anything that would cause us to change our own strategic nuclear deterrent posture,” Kirby reportedly added.
Moreover, Lungescu also claimed that Putin’s statement was “totally misleading,” adding that “Russia’s reference to NATO’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments.”
“Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments,” she noted.
Furthermore, Ukraine’s security chief, Oleksiy Danilov also blasted Putin and accused Russia of trying to destabilize Belarus.
“Putin’s statement about placing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus – a step towards internal destabilization of the country – maximizes the level of negative perception and public rejection of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society. The Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.” Danilov lamented.
On Saturday, Putin told Russian state television that Moscow would deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus later this year following a request from Minsk. He said the plan would not violate Russia’s nuclear nonproliferation agreements — and likened the move to the United States stationing nuclear weapons in Europe. […]
Putin said: “We have agreed [with Belarus] that we will do the same thing. Without violating, I want to stress this, our international obligations on nuclear weapons nonproliferation. On July 1, we will finish building a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.”
Russia, he said, would help Minsk refurbish aircraft to carry the weapons and had already transferred several Iskander missile systems to Belarus.
