MINSK: A senior Belarusian official said that Western countries left Belarus no choice but to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons and had better take heed not to “cross red lines” on vital strategic problems.
According to Voice of America, Alexander Volfovich, state secretary of Belarus’ Security Council, said it was logical that the arms were withdrawn after the 1991 Soviet collapse as the US had provided security guarantees and imposed no sanctions.
The Belta news agency quoted Volfovich as saying: “Today, everything has been torn down. All the promises made are gone forever.”
Belarus, led by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, is Russia’s staunchest ally among former Soviet states and allowed its territory to be used to launch the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia moved ahead the previous week with a decision to deploy tactical nuclear arms on Belarusian territory to achieve specific gains on the battlefield.
Russia said its “military operation” in Ukraine aimed to counter what it said is a “collective West” drive to wage a proxy war and inflict a defeat on Moscow.
Volfovich said, “The deployment of tactical nuclear arms on the territory of Belarus is, therefore, one of the steps of strategic deterrence. If there remains any reason in the heads of Western politicians, of course, they would not cross this red line.”
He said any resort to “even tactical nuclear arms would lead to irreversible consequences.”
Lukashenko, the previous week said the weapons were already on the move, but it isn’t yet clear when they would be in place.
The US has denounced the prospective deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus but said its stance on using such weapons hadn’t been altered.
Western sanctions were imposed on Belarus long before the invasion in connection with Lukashenko’s clampdown on human rights, particularly the repression of mass protests against what his opponents said was his rigged re-election in 2020.
After independence from Soviet rule, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine agreed to their arms being removed and returned to Russia as part of global efforts to contain proliferation.
