Belarus starts taking delivery of Russian nuclear weapons - Lukashenko

Self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has said that Belarus has started receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

That's according to Reuters, Ukrinform reports.

During his speech, the Belarusian dictator said that the weapons provided by Russia are allegedly "three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945."

"We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia," Lukashenko said.

According to the newspaper, the deployment of such warheads is Moscow's first step to deploy nuclear weapons outside Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In March, Russian President Putin announced his agreement to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing out "the U.S. deployment of such weapons in a host of European countries over many decades."

It is worth noting that the day before, the coordinator of the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, said that the United States had not seen any signs that would indicate the practical implementation of Putin and Lukashenko's stated plans on this issue. "We haven’t seen any indication that movement of nuclear weapons is imminent or happening," the Biden administration official said at the time.

As Ukrinform reported, earlier Putin said at a meeting with Lukashenko in Sochi that tactical nuclear weapons would be delivered to Belarus after July 7-8.

Photo: Belta