Kremlin not to change Belarus nukes deployment plan over West’s reaction

March 27, BPN. The West’s reaction will not change Russia’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 27.

“The president [Vladimir Putin] explained everything in the remarks he made in the interview on Saturday. There is nothing to add to that,” Peskov said, as quoted by TASS.

Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel on March 25 that the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would be completed by July 1.

The US Department of Defense has said it sees no signs of Russia preparing to use nuclear weapons, and the US Institute for the Study of War has also called this scenario unlikely. At the same time, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) says Putin’s plan makes the use of nukes more likely.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has demanded that the UN Security Council hold an extraordinary meeting on the issue, and has urged Belarusians to prevent Putin’s plans from materializing.

“We haven’t seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said.

The European Union “stands ready to respond with further sanctions” to the expected deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.