STORY: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday (June 16) that his deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to close ally Belarus was a warning to the West about arming and supporting Ukraine.
Speaking at Russia’s flagship economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin confirmed for the first time that nuclear warheads had already been delivered.
He added that this was only the first batch and all deliveries will be completed by the end of the summer or by the end of the year.
He stressed, however, that he saw no need for Russia to resort to nuclear weapons for now.
This is also Moscow’s first deployment of such warheads outside of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Putin, said late on Tuesday his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons that included some three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan in 1945.
The United States has criticized Putin’s decision but has said it has no intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons.
U.S. Secretary of States Anthony Blinken said it has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
“We’ll continue to monitor the situation very closely and very carefully. We have no reason to adjust our own nuclear posture. We don’t see any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”
Putin said the West was doing everything it could to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine.
He added that talks with the West to reduce Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal were a non-starter.