Vilnius debate: Russia to face retaliatory strike if nukes launched from Belarus

July 13, BPN. Unnamed participants in a debate in Vilnius involving western diplomats have said Russia will receive a retaliatory strike if its nuclear weapons are launched from Belarus.

The remark cannot be attributed because of the debate rules.

Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja’s office initiated the event, which took place yesterday during a NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital.

It involved some 50 people, including Stephen Biegun, US deputy secretary of state in 2019-2021; John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center; and Christoph Heusgen, head of the Munich Security Conference.

Belarus had been a non-nuclear state since the 1990s until Alaksandr Łukašenka agreed to a Russian nuclear deployment earlier this year.

Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja said the deployment can make Belarus a target for a nuclear strike and boost Russia’s military and political presence in the country. The nuclear arsenal is like a Trojan horse, she said at the event: Russia can use it to justify sending more troops there.

She reiterated her call for a UN discussion of Russia’s nuclear move and more sanctions on Moscow.