Alexander Lukashenko was one of Putin's closest allies in the fight against Ukraine. Press Service of the President
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that “everyone will have nuclear weapons” if they decide to join the Russian-Belarusian alliance.
This statement was made just a few days after how countries Defense ministers signed an agreement allowing Moscow to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Lukashenko told reporters in Moscow that «the movement of nuclear weapons has already begun.» The move, which should be the first deployment of nuclear warheads outside of Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, met with resistance in the West.
This former Soviet country was one of Putin's closest allies in the fight against Ukraine, who have already allow Russia to keep troops and weapons there.
Mr. Lukashenko said in an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday evening that it is necessary to «strategically understand» that Minsk and Moscow have a unique chance to unite.< /p>'Nuclear weapons for all'
“No one is against Kazakhstan and other countries that have the same close relations as we have with the Russian Federation.
“If someone cares… (then) it's very simple: join the Union State of Belarus and Russia. That's it: everyone will have nuclear weapons.”
Mr. Lukashenko continued that he was expressing his own opinion, not that of the Kremlin.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Lukashenka's «nuclear» statements «directly indicate that the Russian Federation is deliberately 'killing' the concept of global nuclear deterrence and 'burying' the key Global Treaty on Nuclear Deterrence.» non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.”
On Monday, he tweeted: “This fundamentally undermines the principles of global security… There can be only one solution: tough stance by nuclear states; relevant UN/IAEA resolutions; extensive sanctions against Rosatom; systemic financial sanctions against Belarus and, ultimately, against Russia.”
Kazakh President declines invitation
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev responded to Mr Lukashenko's comments by declining an invitation to join the union.
< p>Mr Tokayev's office quoted him as saying on Telegram that he «appreciated him joke”, but that Kazakhstan is already a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, a broader trade bloc led by Russia, and that further integration is not needed.
“As for nuclear weapons, we do not need them, because we have joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. We remain committed to our obligations under these international documents,” he added.
On Sunday, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that another unit of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system had arrived from Moscow.
The plan to deploy nuclear weapons was originally announced by Russian President Putin in an interview on state television on March 25.
Russia strikes at Kyiv
Elsewhere, Russia fired 11 rockets into and around Kiev on Monday morning in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital, less than 24 hours after a nighttime shelling of the city.
Sergei Popko, head of the Kiev city administration, said, that Russia struck at a time when «most residents were at work and on the streets» as huge numbers of Kievans crowded into the metropolitan metro system to take cover from the attack.
Ukrainian police officers inspect a rocket fragment on the road after Russia fired 11 rockets at Kiev on Monday. Photo: Evgeny Maloletka/AP < p>Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said that Iskander-M and Iskander-K missiles were fired at the capital, but they were all destroyed by air defense systems.
In the pictures fragments are visible on the city, including a fragment of a rocket that fell on the roadway.
A settlement in the east of the Dnepropetrovsk region also came under fire, resulting in the death of one person, as well as a village in Kharkiv, where six were injured Human. people, including a pregnant woman.
Ukrainian officials also confirmed that Russian troops struck a military installation in a nighttime attack in the western part of the Khmelnitsky region, a rare acknowledgment of damage to military installations.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that its forces attacked Ukrainian airfields and «all targets were destroyed.»
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