Russian Ambassador to Belarus Says Russia Will Place Nukes Close to Belarus’ Western Border
Jose Nino
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According to comments by Russia’s Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov, Russia plans on deploying tactical nuclear weapons near Belarus’ borders with NATO member nations as the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has no end in sight.
Gryzlov’s remarks came after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent remark about Russia’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. This represents the latest form of escalation in this conflict as Russia tries to check any maneuvers carried out by NATO to ratchet up tensions.
In an announcement, Putin stated that the construction of storage facilities for tactical nukes in Belarus will be finished by July 1. He stressed that Russia assisted with the modernization of Belarusian military aircraft in order to make them capable of carrying nukes.
Despite some hiccups in the post-Cold War era, Belarus and Russia have seen their relations tighten in recent years as the Collective West has gone obsessively woke and has started to isolate every nation that is not a liberal democracy. Russia currently has troops and armaments stored in Belarus in an attempt to both contain NATO advances and potentially launch another invasion in Ukraine.
While making an appearance on Belarusian state media, Gryzlov said that Russian nukes will be “moved up close to the Western border of our union state” but did not offer any exact location to where these weapons will be placed.
“It will expand our defense capability, and it will be done regardless of all the noise in Europe and the United States,” he said in reference to the Collective West’s criticism of Putin’s move to station nukes in Belarus .
ABC News noted that “Belarus shares a 1,250-kilometer (778-mile) border with NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.”
Tactical nuclear weapons are generally used to take out enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield. They tend to have a relatively short range and a much lower yield compared with nuclear warheads that are attached to long-range strategic missiles, which have the capacity of destroying whole cities.
Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would put them closer to potential targets in Ukraine and NATO member nations in Eastern and Central Europe.
On March 31, 2023, Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko stated that some of Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons could be deployed to Belarus along with several parts of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal.
Tensions are not dying down in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail here because any potential misstep could result in a nuclear exchange between great powers — a lose-lose scenario for the entire world.
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