Belarus president offers to host Russian nuclear weapons as Moscow-Nato tensions mount

The long-time president of Belarus said that his country would be ready to host Russian nuclear weapons if Nato moves US atomic bombs from Germany to Eastern Europe. In an interview, President Alexander Lukashenko also said for the first time that he recognises the Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia and plans to visit it soon. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that the West regards as illegal. Lukashenko made the remarks on Tuesday as he moved to cement ties with Russia, his main ally and sponsor, amid tensions with the West over his disputed re-election last year and his government’s brutal crackdown on dissent in Belarus. Asked about the possible redeployment of US atomic bombs to Eastern Europe if Germany’s new government were no longer willing to house the weapons, Lukashenko responded that he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to send nuclear weapons that were withdrawn after the 1991 Soviet collapse back to Belarus. “I would offer Putin to return nuclear weapons to Belarus,” Lukashenko said in the interview with Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of Russian state media group Rossiya Segodnya. The Belarusian leader wouldn’t elaborate on what kind of weapons Belarus would be willing to accommodate. He added that Belarus has carefully preserved the necessary military infrastructure dating back to the Soviet era. Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left Belarus under pressure after unsuccessfully trying to unseat Lukashenko in last year’s election, denounced the president’s comments. Ukraine leader Zelensky says Russian-backed coup plot uncovered “Such a person shouldn’t be trusted to handle matches, let alone nuclear weapons,” she said. Tsikhanouskaya said the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus would violate international arms agreements and the will of Belarus’ people. “The majority of Belarusians have spoken for Belarus’ neutrality,” she said. Speaking earlier this month, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance would need to ponder redeploying nuclear weapons east if the new German government changes the country’s policy on nuclear sharing. “Germany can, of course, decide whether there will be nuclear weapons in your country, but the alternative is that we easily end up with nuclear weapons in other countries in Europe, also to the east of Germany,” Stoltenberg said. US shares intel with allies on Russian plans for potential Ukraine invasion Lukashenko has edged closer to Russia since he faced Western pressure after being awarded a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West say was rigged. Belarusian authorities responded to protests triggered by the election with a sweeping crackdown, prompting the European Union and the United States to slap Belarus with several rounds of sanctions. Tensions have escalated further since the summer over the arrival of thousands of migrants and refugees on Belarus’ border with EU member Poland. The EU has accused Lukashenko of retaliating for its sanctions by using desperate asylum seekers as pawns and tricking them into trying to enter Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to destabilise the entire EU. Russia and Belarus have a union agreement that envisages close political, economic and military ties, but Lukashenko in the past has sought to manoeuvre between Moscow and the West, trying to win concessions from each party. And even though he relied on cheap energy and loans provided by Russia, he refrained from recognising Moscow’s annexation of Crimea until Tuesday. Poland says Belarus border crisis may be prelude to ‘something worse’ Ukrainian and Western authorities have raised concern in recent days about alleged Kremlin plans to invade Ukraine. Lukashenko warned that his country would stand squarely behind Russia if the Ukrainian government launched an offensive against Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. Putin on Tuesday sternly warned Nato against deploying its troops and weapons to Ukraine, saying it represented a red line for Russia and would trigger a strong response. Commenting on Western concerns about Russia’s alleged intention to invade Ukraine, he said that Moscow was equally worried about Nato drills near its borders. Speaking to participants of an online investment forum. Putin said that Nato’s eastward expansion has threatened Russia’s core security interests. He expressed concern that Nato could eventually use the Ukrainian territory to deploy missiles capable of reaching Moscow in just five minutes. “The emergence of such threats represents a ‘red line’ for us,” Putin said. “I hope that it will not get to that and common sense and responsibility for their own countries and the global community will eventually prevail.” Hypersonic ‘arms race risks military misstep’ from China, US and Russia He added that Russia has been forced to counter the growing threats by developing new hypersonic weapons. “What should we do?” Putin said. “We would need to develop something similar to target those who threaten us. And we can do that even now.” He said a new hypersonic missile that is set to enter service with the Russian navy early next year would be capable of reaching targets in comparable time. “It would also need just five minutes to reach those who issue orders,” Putin said. The Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound to a range of 1,000km (620 miles), has undergone a series of tests, most recently Monday. The Russian leader noted that Russia has worried about Nato drills near its borders, pointing at a recent exercise that involved US strategic bombers. “Strategic bombers, which carry precision weapons and are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, were flying as close as 20km to our border,” Putin said. “That represents a threat for us.” Responding to a question about the threat of a Russian invasion in Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “we’re deeply concerned about the heightened rhetoric, about the reported military build-up on the border”. Asked about China’s nuclear build-up, Putin said that Russia isn’t worried about it, adding that close ties between Moscow and Beijing are a “major factor of global stability”.

Belarus president offers to host Russian nuclear weapons as Moscow-Nato tensions mount

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Belarus leader says could host Russian weapons as he cements ties with Moscow Russia’s Putin warns West that Moscow has ‘red line’ about Ukraine and Nato

Belarus leader says could host Russian weapons as he cements ties with Moscow

Russia’s Putin warns West that Moscow has ‘red line’ about Ukraine and Nato