Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Friday that his country will begin deploying special tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory next July, after the readiness of the facilities allocated to them is completed.
During his meeting in the resort of Sochi with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said that the process of preparing the relevant facilities for the deployment of these weapons is in its final stages.
The facilities will be completed on July 7 and 8, he said, "and we will immediately begin activities related to the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus." A Kremlin statement quoted Putin as saying that "everything is proceeding according to plan, and everything is stable."
The deployment is due to begin ahead of a NATO summit on July 11-12 in Lithuania, which borders Belarus, which will consider Ukraine's candidacy to join the alliance.
Earlier, the two presidents agreed on a plan to deploy short-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Moscow's close ally Belarus, with the missiles remaining under Russian command.
Chronology
The Russian president announced on March 25 that Moscow would deploy "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus, raising fears of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin also announced that 10 planes have been equipped in Belarus to use similar weapons, pointing out that a special warehouse will be completed by July <>.
At the beginning of April, Russia announced that it had begun training Belarusian military personnel in the use of "tactical" nuclear weapons.
At the end of May, Lukashenko confirmed that the transfer of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus had already begun.
"These tactical weapons can cause enormous damage, but their destructive radius is more limited than strategic nuclear weapons," AFP reported.