JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin on Friday (17/6) said Russia had delivered the first tactical nuclear weapons set to its neighbor Belarus, a move that appeared to escalate further tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine.
This marks the first time Russia has lowered nuclear weapons beyond the border since they broke away from the former Soviet republic during its 1991 collapse.
In a statement at the international economic forum in St. Petersburg, as quoted by Antara, Putin said that "nuclear warheads have been delivered to Belarus" and "this is the first shipment."
"We will complete this work by the end of the year," he added, stressing that the decision to deliver tactical nuclear weapons, designed for limited attacks on the battlefield, was a precautionary measure.
Belarus borders with NATO countries, including Poland, and has helped Russia in its military aggression although it did not participate directly in the attack.
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By emphasizing that Russia won the war against Ukraine, Putin, who spoke through translators, stressed that although the use of nuclear weapons is "theoretically possible", it is only necessary if "there is a threat to Russia's sovereignty."
The Russian president also criticized the United States for being the only country to use nuclear weapons to attack countries without nuclear weapons, referring to the use of atomic bombs over the cities of Hiroshima andhimpada in Japan on the last day of the Second World War.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Friday in Washington he would "continue to monitor the situation very closely" but added there was no indication that Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons.
"We have no reason to adjust our own nuclear stance," he said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, said Tuesday that his country began receiving shipments of Russian tactical nuclear weapons including some with three times the power of an atomic bomb dropped by the US in Japan in 1945, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile Putin, warned of the risk of NATO members being dragged into conflict over the transfer of US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying Russia needed to consider dropping the jet if it was deployed at air bases outside Ukraine and used in war.
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