Russia has sent the first set of tactical nuclear weapons to its neighbor ally Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said Friday, in a move that is likely to further increase tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine.
It marks the first time for Russia to deploy nuclear weapons outside its borders since they were withdrawn from republics of the former Soviet Union in the wake of its 1991 collapse.
In remarks at an international economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said that "nuclear warheads have been delivered to Belarusian territory" and that "this is the first batch."
"We will complete this work by the end of this year," he added, while noting that the decision to send the tactical nuclear weapons, which are designed for limited strikes on the battlefield, was a deterrence measure.
Belarus shares borders with NATO countries, including Poland, and has aided Russia in its military aggression while not taking part in the invasion directly.
Asserting that Russia is prevailing in the war against Ukraine, Putin, speaking through an interpreter, emphasized that while the use of nuclear weapons is "theoretically possible," it would only be necessary if "there is a threat to Russian statehood."
The Russian president also criticized the United States for being the only country to have used nuclear weapons to attack a non-nuclear state, touching on the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II.
In Washington on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States will "continue to monitor the situation very closely" but added there are no indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
"We have no reason to adjust our own nuclear posture," he said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, said Tuesday his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons that included some three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in 1945, according to Reuters.
Putin, meanwhile, warned of the risks of NATO members being drawn into the conflict over the transfer of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying that Russia will have to consider hitting the aircraft if it is deployed in air force bases outside Ukraine and used in combat.
