Ukraine says Russia ‘took Belarus as a nuclear hostage’ by basing weapons in country

A top security adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would destabilise that country

Putin announced the decision on Saturday, sending a warning to Nato over its military support for Ukraine and escalating a stand-off with the West

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Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council said that Russian plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would destabilise that country Photo: Reuters/Flie

Published: 4:10pm, 26 Mar 2023

Kyiv on Sunday said Russia was holding Minsk as a “nuclear hostage” after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus.

“The Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage,” the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, wrote on Twitter.

He added that the move was “a step towards the internal destabilisation of the country”.

On Saturday, Putin said he and strongman Alexander Lukashenko “agreed” Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on February 17, 2023. Photo: Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters/ File Photo

Lukashenko, who has been in power in Belarus for almost 30 years, is a key Putin ally.