Putin to send nuclear weapons to Belarus

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that his country is receiving nuclear weapons from Russian President Vladimir Putin and that he would not hesitate to use them if challenged with aggression. 

“God forbid I have to make a decision to use those weapons today, but there would be no hesitation if we face an aggression,” the leader reportedly said on Tuesday.

On a Russian state TV show, the host asked if Belarus had already received the weapons. Lukashenko responded, “Not all of them, little by little,” according to The Associated Press.

Later on the show, Lukashenko said that for the weapons deployment "everything is ready," and that "it could take just a few days for us to get what we had asked for and even a bit more." 

Putin maintains that the weapons would stay under Moscow's control, the AP reports, and Putin said to Lukashenko on Friday that "the preparation of the relevant facilities will be finished on July 7–8, after which we will immediately start the process of deploying the corresponding types of weapons in your territory."

Lukashenko claimed on the show that some of the nukes were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

From this development as well as continued involvement in the war in Ukraine, it appears Russia and Belarus are deepening ties as tensions build with Western Europe.