Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia has sent the first nuclear weapons to Belarus as part of a plan to deploy tactical nuclear bombs in the country bordering Ukraine.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said the rest of the nuclear weapons would be delivered by the end of the summer.
“This is a deterrence measure [against] all those who think about Russia and its strategic defeat,” he said in response to a question about the use of nuclear weapons in war.
The Russian leader’s comments follow claims from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko this week that his nation received the first part of the “bombs and missiles from Russia.”
“God forbid I have to make a decision to use those weapons today, but there would be no hesitation if we face an aggression,” Lukashenko said in a statement.
The move was first announced by the two allied leaders back in March, part of a strategy from Putin to keep the threat of nuclear weapons in the minds of Western leaders who are heavily backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, Belarus was one of four former Soviet Union members, including Ukraine, that transferred nuclear weapons over to Russia.
Moving the nuclear weapons back into Belarus marks the first nuclear weapon transfer for Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The weapons Moscow is transferring are short-range tactical nuclear weapons, which have a shorter range and lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to ballistic missiles — but are still capable of immense damage far exceeding the bombs dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.
The U.S. also deploys tactical nuclear weapons abroad, including about 100 nuclear gravity bombs stationed in Europe.
On Friday, Putin, who has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons during the Ukraine war, castigated the U.S. as the only country to drop nuclear weapons on another country and deflected questions about his own nuclear weapons strategy.
When pressed about the transfer decision, Putin on Friday said he didn’t want to “frighten the whole world” and maintained the nuclear weapons would only be used in self-defense.
“These measures can be used only if there’s a threat to Russian statehood,” he said. “All the means in our hands will be used against it.”