The Ministry of Defense of Belarus on Tuesday announced a surprise inspection of non-strategic (tactical) nuclear weapons delivery vehicles in the Armed Forces.
As follows from messages departments, the authoritarian leader of the country Alexander Lukashenko ordered the inspection.
A division of the Iskander operational-tactical complex and a squadron of Su-25 aircraft are being prepared to carry out tasks. Activities include planning, preparation and use of strikes with tactical nuclear weapons, noted Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin.
State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Alexander Volfovich said that Minsk “continues to improve the combat readiness of its forces, based on the emerging military-political situation, primarily around Belarus.” Volfovich added that the current inspection was planned against the background of the actions of “colleagues from Russia” and was synchronized with them. The official assured that the measures are “exclusively defensive in nature and do not project threats onto any of the states.”
A day earlier, on May 6, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that exercises would be held in the near future “in order to increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to carry out combat missions.” The order was given by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, that is, President Vladimir Putin. The Russian military department called the purpose of the exercises “the unconditional provision of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials against the Russian Federation.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the exercises were prompted by recent statements by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, as well as comments from Washington. Peskov spoke about their words regarding the possible sending of Western military personnel to Ukraine and Ukrainian strikes against targets in Russia using Western weapons.
- In March 2023, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia, at the request of Minsk, would deploy its tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. Moscow handed over the Iskander missile system, which can carry nuclear weapons, to Minsk and helped re-equip Belarusian aircraft so they could carry special munitions.
- At the end of April 2024, Lukashenko announced that Russia had stationed several dozen nuclear weapons in Belarus. The Russian president noted that Moscow, by its actions, does not violate the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, since it will not transfer these weapons to Belarus, but only places them – under its control – on Belarusian territory.
- Lukashenko is considered one of Putin’s closest allies, whose army has been waging a full-scale war against Ukraine since February 2022. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Western countries have expressed concerns about Russia’s possible use of tactical nuclear weapons, particularly in the event of failures at the front.