Shoigu signs agreement on deploying Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus

Belarus’s Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin and his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu have signed an agreement on deploying Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus.

According to the Defense Ministry of Belarus, the agreement outlines the procedure for “storing Russia’s non-strategic nuclear weapons in specialized facility.”

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu emphasizes that “Russia isn’t handing over its nuclear weapons to the Republic of Belarus: the Russian side will control them and make decisions about using them.” Earlier, Vladimir Putin used this reasoning to argue that deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would not violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The former Belarusian presidential candidate and opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says it’s necessary to do everything possible to prevent the deployment of Russia’s nuclear weapons in Belarus, which would “directly violate” Belarus’s non-nuclear status guaranteed by its Constitution, “ensuring Russia’s control over Belarus for the years to come and creating an even greater threat to the security of Ukraine and all of Europe.”