Aug 26 (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that his military's SU-24 warplanes had been modified to carry nuclear weaponsand that Minsk would react immediately if the West caused it any problems.
Lukashenko said he had agreed the move to modernise Belarusian warplanes with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Belta news agency reported.
Belarus, a staunch Russian ally, does not have its own nuclear weapons. Lukashenko did not go into details about how a weapons transfer from Moscow, which is using Belarusian territory to mount what it calls its "special military operation" against Ukraine, might take place.
Belta cited Lukashenko as talking about a potential future threat from neighbouring Poland, a NATO member, while saying he was confident that the Polish military, unlike Warsaw's politicians, understood how Minsk could respond to what he called any escalation.
His overall remarks appeared to be referring to a potential threat from the West in general.
"They (the West) must understand that if they opt for escalation no helicopters or planes will save them," Lukashenko was quoted as saying.
"Everything was ready," he said, referring to the work to modify Belarusian warplanes to carry nuclear weapons.
"It's not a good idea to escalate things with Belarus because that would be an escalation with the Union State (of Russia and Belarus) which has nuclear weapons. If they start to create problems … the response will be immediate."
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Britain's Boris Johnson should be excluded from parliament for deliberately misleading lawmakers over rule-breaking COVID lockdown parties at his office, a committee said on Thursday in a damning report the former leader described as "rubbish".
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.
Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology.
The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs.
The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals.
Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile.
Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts.
Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
© 2023 Reuters. All rights reserved