Belarus on Tuesday launched drills involving missiles and warplanes capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, which close ally Russia has deployed there amid tensions with the West over Ukraine.
The Belarusian maneuvers began a day after Russia announced plans to hold similar drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in what it cast as a response to statements by Western officials signaling possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine. It was the first time such an exercise had been publicly announced by Moscow.
Belarus’s Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said a unit of Iskander short-range missiles and a squadron of fighter jets will take part in the drills.
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The maneuvers, held jointly with Russia, began as Russian President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated to a fifth term on Tuesday, vowing to ensure Russia’s security.
Last year, Russia moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus, which also borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. Belarus’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has relied on close ties with Russia and provided his country as a staging ground for the war in Ukraine.
Moscow has emphasized that the tactical nuclear weapons deployed to Belarus remain under Russian military control.
Unlike nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons intended for use against troops on the battlefield are less powerful. Such weapons include aerial bombs, warheads for short-range missiles, and artillery munitions.
The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, which has a 673-mile border with Ukraine, would allow Russian aircraft and missiles to reach potential targets there more easily and quickly if Moscow decides to use them. It also extends Russia’s capability to target several NATO allies in Eastern and Central Europe.
Both Putin and Lukashenko said that the Russian nuclear weapons' deployment to Belarus was intended to counter perceived Western threats.
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Lukashenko on Tuesday cast the drills as “exclusively defensive,” arguing that the Russian nuclear weapons are intended to deter any potential aggression against Belarus. “This is a weapon of deterrence, a defensive weapon," Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian leader said the drills will involve the delivery of tactical nuclear weapons from storage to military units, where they will be mounted on missiles and attached to warplanes. The missile units will practice covert deployment to firing positions to simulate a response to an attack on Belarus, he said.
Belarus’s opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to leave the country under official pressure after challenging Lukashenko in an August 2020 presidential vote, met on Tuesday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and denounced the Russian nuclear weapons’ presence in Belarus.
“Nuclear weapons turn Belarus and Belarusians into targets,” she said. “The Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus raise a direct threat to lives and health of citizens of all Europe.”
The military exercise was the latest development that has raised concerns in Eastern Europe.
In Warsaw, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for a special meeting of the secret services to discuss alleged Russian and Belarusian infiltration after a Polish judge who had access to sensitive state information defected to Belarus.
Authorities in NATO and European Union member Poland are investigating the judge, Tomasz Szmydt, on suspicions that he was acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.
The Polish government said in a statement Tuesday that “Szmydt had constant and direct access to classified information. He has also been in contact with Belarusians for a long time. This situation should be of the utmost concern.”
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Tusk said the meeting of the Secret Services College on Wednesday would focus on “alleged Russian and Belarusian influence in the Polish power apparatus.”
Earlier Tuesday, a Polish official said bugging devices were found in a room where the Polish Cabinet was scheduled to meet. Another official later said the equipment was part of an old sound system in the building, but the incident underlined anxieties in Poland over warnings that Russia is increasing its activities against the West amid the war in Ukraine.
“Every day there is new information about various strange events that are directly or indirectly related to the aggressive presence of Russian and Belarusian services in Europe,” Tusk said.