On March 1, the editor-in-chief of the Belarus Today newspaper Dzmitry Zhuk spoke about what, in his opinion, the deployment of nuclear warheads in Belarus means.
“Now think about it, just think about it, that on our territory, another sovereign state, the leader of a neighboring sovereign state gives a nuclear baton. Just think about the level of trust. A world never seen before,” he said on the air of state-run TV channel “Belarus 1”, the “Editors Club” program.
In the spring of 2023, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that control and decisions on the use of Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus remain with Moscow. Thus, the “nuclear baton” was not given to Minsk. Belarus did not receive control over nuclear warheads.
А year ago, Vladimir Putin himself noted that precedents for the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of other countries are not something new. Here is what he in particular said:
“Aleksandr Lukashenko has long raised the question of deployment Russian tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. There is nothing unusual here either. First, the United States has been doing this for decades.”
In addition to the United States, American nuclear weapons are deployed in five countries: Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. In January 2024, it was reported that Washington was planning to deploy it in the UK as well.