(VOVWORLD) - Russia will move its tactical nuclear weapons close to the western borders of Belarus, the Russian envoy to Minsk said on Sunday, placing them at NATO’s threshold in a move likely to further escalate Moscow’s standoff with the West.
 A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service keeps watch at the Senkivka checkpoint near the border with Belarus and Russia in the Chernihiv region, Ukraine, February 16, 2022. (Photo: REUTERS) |
President Vladimir Putin said on March 26 that Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The weapons will be moved to the western border of Belarus and will increase the possibilities to ensure security, Russian ambassador to Belarus, Boris Gryzlov, told Belarusian state television.
Gryzlov did not specify where the weapons will be stationed, but confirmed that a storage facility will be completed, as ordered by Putin, by July 1 and then moved to the west of Belarus.
Belarus borders to the north with Lithuania and Latvia and to west with Poland, all part of NATO’s Eastern flank.
President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that Belarus would also allow Russia to put intercontinental nuclear missiles there too if necessary.