Łukašenka, Putin agree to sync nuclear drills
May 9, Pozirk. Belarus and Russia have agreed to sync their nuclear drills, Alaksndar Łukašenka said after today’s parade at Red Square in Moscow.
Vladimir Putin told journalists that he and Łukašenka had worked late into the night, Russian media reported. They discussed bilateral relations and Ukraine, and also “spoke with the defense minister and the chief of General Staff [of the Russian Federation].”
“Since our nonstrategic nuclear weapons are stationed on the territory of Belarus, this time we invited our friends and allies (and the president of Belarus asked for it) to take part in one of the stages of this exercise. We hold them regularly,” Putin said. “This time it has three stages. At the second stage, the Belarusian counterparts will join our joint actions. Relevant instructions have been given to the ministries of defense and the general staffs of our armies, and they have begun joint preparations.”
“It could be said that we carried out the first stage separately, but yesterday we decided to synchronize [our actions] and carry out the second and third stages together,” Łukašenka added.
On May 6, the Russian General Staff reported preparations for an exercise with tactical nuclear weapons to “increase the nonstrategic nuclear forces’ combat readiness.”
A day later, Łukašenka also ordered the Armed Forces to hold tactical nuclear drills involving “delivering special munitions to missile and aviation military units, loading them onto launchers and attaching them to aircraft.”
The US-based Institute for the Study of War analyzed rhetoric from Minsk and Moscow and concluded that they do not seek nuclear escalation. They are unlikely to use nuclear weapons, it said.
Pavieł Łatuška, deputy chairman of the United Transitional Cabinet, dismissed the exercise as a major psychological operation organized by the Kremlin ahead of a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland.
Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja said that the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus and the nuclear drills pose a “direct and serious threat to the security of Europe.”
In her opinion, these “provocative actions” by Putin and Łukašenka are aimed at “blackmailing and intimidating Europe in an attempt to divide the West and weaken its support for Ukraine.”
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May 7, Pozirk. The tactical nuclear drill, announced today, will involve "delivering special munitions to missile and aviation military units, loading them onto launchers and attaching them to aircraft," Alaksandar Łukašenka has told a grand rally ahead of Victory Day, …