Belarus would be ready to use nuclear weapons provided by close ally Russia in the face of foreign “aggression”, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday, as tensions rose over the country’s borders with NATO nations.
Minsk has played a key role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Moscow using Belarus as one of its launch pads for an invasion in early 2022, while joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises over the past year have fueled fears that Belarusian troops could join to the Russian forces.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, Russian nuclear warheads were delivered to Belarus for “deterrence”.
In an interview with the state-run Belta news agency, Lukashenko said Belarus “will never join this war” unless Ukrainians cross its border. But he added: “We will continue to help Russia, they are our ally.”
He also warned that if provoked – especially by neighboring NATO countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – his country would “retaliate immediately with everything we have”, including nuclear weapons.
It is unclear how much of Russia’s nuclear arsenal has been transported to Belarus recently, and U.S. and Western officials have not publicly confirmed that any weapons have been transferred — although senior officials at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said they had “no reason to doubt” Putin’s claim.
During the interview, Lukashenko said that if Belarus is attacked, “we will not delay, we will wait for the rest. We will use the entire arsenal of our deterrent weapons.”
“We didn’t bring nuclear weapons here to scare anybody,” he added. “Yes, nuclear weapons are a strong deterrent. But these are tactical nuclear weapons, not strategic. So we will use them immediately if aggression is launched against us.”
Senior DIA officials said in July that they did not believe Lukashenko would have any control over the arsenal, which would most likely be entirely controlled by Russia.
Regional tension
Lukashenko’s latest comments come as the security situation in Europe grows increasingly volatile, with Belarus’ northern neighbors unnerved by the presence of the Russian mercenary group Wagner – which has been stationed in Belarus since its brief insurgency in Russia earlier this summer.
In recent weeks, there have been reports of Wagner troops moving into a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania, in an apparent attempt to increase pressure on NATO and European Union members.
Citing concerns about Wagner, Poland recently announced it would move about 10,000 troops to its border with Belarus and detained two Russians accused of espionage and spreading propaganda for the Russian mercenary group.
Lithuania said on Wednesday it would temporarily suspend operations at two of its six border checkpoints with Belarus over concerns about Wagner’s forces, with the interior minister citing “emerging threats to national security and possible border provocations”.
In response, Belarus criticized Lithuania for taking an “unconstructive and unfriendly step”, calling the reasons for “Wagner” “far-fetched”.
During Thursday’s interview, Lukashenko denied that Putin may have been weakened by Wagner’s failed rebellion, calling such claims “absolute nonsense.”
“Now Putin is more mobilized, more cunning and wiser. Our opponents should know that,” Lukashenko said, adding: “Today, no one will overthrow Putin.”
He also reiterated that the idea of deploying “Wagner” in Belarus was his. “To put out this rebellion, to put out this fire, it was necessary to accept all conditions, because the rebellion could be devastating for everyone,” he said.
The war in Ukraine
Lukashenko also weighed in on the ongoing war on Thursday, warning that Moscow would never give up the territory of Crimea legally annexed by Ukraine more than seven years ago.
While Russia is open to talks on Ukraine, it will “never get Crimea back,” he said, according to Belta.
“It won’t happen. For now, I doubt that any agreement can be reached here in the east. But Russia is ready to discuss any topics. I know that for sure,” Lukashenko said, quoted by CNN.
However, he claimed that the Ukrainians “are being pressured by the Americans” and do not want to negotiate at the moment, adding that the talks “must start without preconditions”. Any peace talks on Ukraine must include Belarus, as “we have our own interests there and our position must be heard,” he added.
Crimea was forcibly seized by Russia in 2014 – soon after Ukrainian protesters helped oust pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych – when thousands of Russian special operations troops in unmarked uniforms deployed around the peninsula.
Two weeks later, Russia completed its annexation of Crimea in a referendum criticized by Ukraine and much of the world as illegitimate and at the time considered the biggest land grab in Europe since World War II.
Since the annexation, human rights monitors have described Crimea as a police state, with local authorities and Russian security services prosecuting and arresting those deemed loyal to Ukraine, including members of the Crimean Tatar community.
A 2020 US State Department report described a pattern of human rights abuses in Crimea by Russia or Russian-led authorities, including unlawful or arbitrary killings and enforced disappearances.
Since then, the occupied territory has become a key part of the war in Ukraine, with the Crimean bridge – connecting the peninsula to mainland Russia – a vital supply link for Russian forces and a target for Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
Formerly under Soviet control until declaring its sovereignty in 1990, Belarus is also an autocratic state that has been effectively ruled by Lukashenko since independence.
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2023-08-19 19:12:00
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