Photo – rbc.ua
As NBN reports, The Wall Street Journal says that Alexander Lukashenko, who is the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, said at the end of December 2023 that the Russian Federation had completed the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in the country. Lukashenko's statement then came against the backdrop of increased threats from the Russian Federation against the West.
The material also states that US officials do not provide complete information regarding their own intelligence data regarding Russia’s transfer of nuclear weapons to Belarus and it is likely that Lukashenko is not telling the truth.
Although in July 2023, the US Defense Intelligence Agency stated that there is “not a single reason to doubt” Russian President Putin’s statements regarding the supply of nuclear weapons to Belarus.
The WSJ publication noted:
Open source intelligence, including video materials from the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, was analyzed by the Federation of American Scientists. As a result, they came to the conclusion that the Lida airbase, which is located 40 kilometers from the Lithuanian cordon, and is the only wing of the Belarusian Air Force, equipped with Su-25 aircraft, is the most likely candidate for using Belarus’ new “nuclear exchange” mission with Russia
The authors of the material also drew attention to the fact that Lukashenka’s statement was made at a time when Russia strengthened its own forecasts towards the West. Not so long ago, Putin said that “there will be problems” with Finland after NATO “pulled” Helsinki into the Alliance.
Among other things, in November 2023, Dmitry Medvedev, who is the deputy head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, called Poland an “enemy” that could lose its own statehood.
The WSJ also says that Putin’s provocative nuclear move in Belarus is a reminder that Ukraine is at stake.
Let us recall that we previously wrote about Lukashenko’s statement regarding the receipt of nuclear weapons from the Russian Federation.
