Shoigu in Minsk signed documents on the placement of nuclear weapons

At a meeting in Minsk, the Ministers of Defense of Belarus and Russia signed documents on the procedure for placing Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.

As reported by the Belarusian state agency BelTA, Viktor Khrenin and Sergey Shoigu also discussed “the military-political situation and issues of military-technical cooperation between the defense departments.”

Shoigu called Belarus a “faithful ally and reliable partner” of Russia and said that both countries are standing together against the “collective West”, which is allegedly waging an undeclared war against them. At the same time, Shoigu noted that it is not a question of transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus: the decision on its use remains with Moscow.

The day before, at the session of the Eurasian Economic Forum in Moscow, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokaev, noted that Russia and Belarus have created a “unique precedent in world political history” based on the formula “two countries – one state”. “I apologize, and even nuclear weapons are one for two now,” Tokaev said. He emphasized that there is also a second level of integration in the EAEU, represented by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, and “we have to reckon with this reality.”

“How we will work in these conditions is a conceptual question. I think we need to discuss this problem,” Tokaev said. Kazakhstan previously did not recognize the independence of the so-called “LPR” and “DPR” and, accordingly, the annexation of Ukrainian regions by Russia. Belarus also did not directly declare the recognition of the annexation, although Alexander Lukashenko met with Russia’s appointed acting president. head of “DNR” Denys Pushylin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in March of this year. According to him, the construction of a storage facility for this weapon should be completed by July 1. The USA and NATO countries condemned the decision of the Russian and Belarusian authorities.

• There is no exact definition of tactical nuclear weapons – it is assumed that we are talking about nuclear munitions of lower power and carriers with a shorter range than in the case of strategic (intercontinental) nuclear weapons. The official range of Iskander missiles is up to 500 km, that is, missiles deployed in Belarus can threaten almost the entire territory of Poland, the Baltic states, and partially also Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.