President Lukashenko Warns Nuclear Weapons Will Be Used If The European Union Attacks Belarus Or Russia

President Putin with President Lukashenko. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that nuclear weapons would be used against NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) if the country attacks its country or Russia.

President Lukashenko, loyal ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered the warning while speaking at an event with students in the Minsk capital on Friday.

He warned that the attack on Belarus would be a "Third World War" and NATO forces crossing its borders would be a "red line," according to state news agency Belta.

The Belarusian leader said Russia's nuclear doctrine had been amended to state nuclear weapons would be used in the event of an attack on one of the countries.

"As I said in the patriotic forum (which was held on September 17), the attack on Belarus will trigger World War III. Recently, Vladimir Putin has confirmed it, after changing the nuclear doctrine. Attacks on Russia and Belarus will trigger a nuclear response", said President Lukashenko, quoted from74, September 27.

"If we use nuclear weapons, they will do the same. And against Russia too. So Russia will use all its weapons. This will be a world war. The West doesn't want this. They are not ready for that. We tell them publicly: the red line is the country's border. You step on it, we will respond immediately. We are preparing for this," he explained.

Belarus does not have its own nuclear weapons, but has placed a tactical Russian warhead on its territory since last year, amid Moscow's ongoing war in Ukraine.

Since President Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, fears of an escalation into a nuclear war have escalated.

Last Wednesday, President Putin stepped up his warning, saying Russia was expanding its rules for the use of nuclear weapons, as President Lukashenko referred to.

This is the strongest warning from Russian leaders so far, after Ukraine was allowed to launch a long-range attack on Russian territory using long-range missiles provided by the West.

Last week, Russia also warned the West and Ukraine about "disaster consequences" if Ukraine moved to attack Belarus, with a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry citing increasingly "provocative" activity on the border with Belarus.

Belarus itself began amassing troops on its border with Ukraine in August, saying it was due to the presence of Ukrainian troops around the border, increasing military tensions between the two countries.

President Lukashenko has avoided direct involvement in the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war, but has allowed Putin to use Belarus as a preparation post for the attack on Kyiv.