Lalrp.org: 
U.S. officers additionally downplayed the transfer, with John Kirby, communications coordinator for the Nationwide Safety Council, telling CBS Information’s “Face the Nation” that there was no indication Putin had “made good on this pledge or moved any nuclear weapons round.”
“We’ve seen nothing that might trigger us to alter our personal strategic deterrent posture,” he stated.
On Saturday, Putin advised Russian state tv that Moscow would deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus later this 12 months following a request from Minsk. He stated the plan wouldn’t violate Russia’s nuclear nonproliferation agreements — and likened the transfer to the USA stationing nuclear weapons in Europe.
In a press release on Sunday, NATO dismissed this characterization as “completely deceptive.”
Putin stated: “We have now agreed [with Belarus] that we’ll do the identical factor. With out violating, I need to stress this, our worldwide obligations on nuclear weapons nonproliferation. On July 1, we are going to end constructing a particular storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.”
Russia, he stated, would assist Minsk refurbish plane to hold the weapons and had already transferred a number of Iskander missile techniques to Belarus.
Ukraine on Sunday accused Russia of taking Belarus “as a nuclear hostage.” Moscow is in search of to destabilize the nation, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s nationwide safety and protection council, stated on Twitter.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over a 12 months in the past, the Kremlin has continuously turned to nuclear saber-rattling in response to Western criticism or perceived aggression. Russian officers have threatened nuclear strikes towards Ukraine if it makes an attempt to recapture the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
However Putin’s remarks Saturday stood in stark distinction along with his obvious vow simply final week to forestall nuclear battle, throughout a three-day go to by Chinese language President Xi Jinping to Moscow. In a joint assertion, Russia and China agreed {that a} nuclear battle might by no means be received and reaffirmed their dedication to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The assertion even prompted Josep Borrell, the European Union’s overseas coverage chief, to say that he believed the world was safer consequently.
However on Sunday, Borrell slammed Putin’s plans to maneuver nuclear weapons to Belarus, calling it “an irresponsible escalation & menace to European safety.”
“Belarus can nonetheless cease it, it’s their alternative,” Borrell stated on Twitter.
In one other tweet, Belarus’s opposition chief in exile, Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya, stated that the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons “immediately violates the Structure of Belarus” and “disrespects” the nation’s sovereignty.
“Russia acts because the occupying drive, violating nationwide safety and placing Belarus on the collision course with its neighbors and the worldwide neighborhood,” Tsikhanouskaya wrote.
Within the Nineties, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus signed the Budapest Memorandum on Safety Assurances in addition to different agreements that noticed Minsk quit its nuclear weapons.
The plan to relocate Russia’s nuclear weapons additionally raised questions on whether or not the bombs could be secure. Final month, antigovernment partisans in Belarus claimed to have broken a Russian surveillance aircraft stationed at an airport in Minsk. The group stated it used a drone.
In Germany, the International Ministry stated the announcement by Putin was “one other try at nuclear intimidation by Russia,” whereas U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) advised ’s State of the Union that the Russian chief is “a harmful man.”
In keeping with Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin’s remarks have been “too predictable” and an indication of weak spot as Ukrainian forces arise towards Russian troops on the battlefield.
“Making a press release about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he’s afraid of shedding and all he can do is scare with ways,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
