Belarus Now Has Russian Tactical Nuclear Weapons at the Ready, Lukashenko Says

Russia has completed its potentially destabilizing shipments of tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus, the neighboring country's leader said Monday.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told a meeting of a Moscow-led economic bloc in St. Petersburg that the final load arrived in October but didn't say how many nukes were sent or where they're being kept, according to the Associated Press.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in March that he planned to station short-range nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and NATO-member Poland.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is living in exile, said at the time that the deal “underlines the threat to regional security” posed by Lukashenko’s regime.

Lukashenko let Putin station troops along the Belarus border with Ukraine before Russia invaded in February 2022.

He's said that having nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus was meant to deter aggression by Poland, which is providing Ukraine with military, humanitarian and political support in its war against Russia.

Russia has said it would maintain control over the arms, which are designed for battlefield use and have relatively low yields when compared with strategic nuclear warheads carried by long-range missiles.

Tactical nukes can be launched by Iskander short-range missiles that Russia reportedly gave Belarus last year or dropped from planes that Moscow helped Belarus modernize last year to carry them.