UN Security Council to discuss Russia’s nuclear weapons deployment in Belarus this week

March 28, BPN. The UN Security Council will discuss the deployment of nuclear weapons by Russia in Belarus on March 28 or 29, said Robert Wood, senior US diplomat at the United Nations, TASS reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Rossiya 24 on March 25 that a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would be completed by July 1.

The US Department of Defense said it saw 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 demanded that the UN Security Council hold an extraordinary meeting, and urged Belarusians to thwart Putin’s plans.

“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.