The deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus will begin immediately after the completion of the preparation of facilities for it on July 7-8. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the authoritarian leader of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko.
In late May, Lukashenko said that the transfer of nuclear weapons to Belarus had already begun. However, he did not answer then whether the weapons were already on the territory of the country.
On May 25, Defense Ministers of Russia and Belarus Sergey Shoigu and Viktor Khrenin signed documents in Minsk defining the procedure for keeping Russian nuclear weapons in a special storage facility on Belarusian territory. Shoigu pointed out that there was no question of transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus: the decision to use them remained with Moscow.
Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in March 2023. The U.S. and NATO countries condemned the decision of the Russian and Belarusian authorities – taking into account the ongoing large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the allied relationship between Moscow and Minsk, and the assistance provided by the Belarusian authorities to the Russian army.
