Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said in St. Petersburg that Russia has ended all supplies of tactical nuclear weapons to his country, a move that has raised serious concerns in neighboring Poland and other surrounding countries, reported SkyNews.
At an economic summit of countries gathered around Russia, Lukashenko said the deliveries ended in October, but did not specify how many nuclear warheads had been transferred from Russia to Belarus or where they were located.
Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, which are thermonuclear, most often placed on ICBMs and can level entire cities and wider areas around them, tactical weapons are classically nuclear, have significantly less power and are intended for use on the battlefield.
Russia has long said it would retain control of tactical weapons in Belarus.
The Belarusian president said the purpose of deploying these weapons was to deter possible aggression by NATO member Poland against Minsk.
Poland supplies Ukraine, its neighbor and Belarus' neighbor, with weapons, humanitarian aid and political support. Warsaw also supports the international sanctions imposed on Moscow because of its war against Ukraine./BGNES
