“
The Kremlin has taken Belarus as a nuclear hostage
,” Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
This message comes in reaction to the announcement by President Vladimir Putin of a deployment of " tactical
" nuclear weapons
on the territory of his ally.
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Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he had the Minsk agreement to deploy these weapons in Belarus, a country located at the gates of the European Union and led since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko, his closest ally.
This news “
maximizes the level of negative perception and public rejection of Russia and Mr. Putin in Belarusian society
”, advances Oleskïï Danilov, affirming that this decision is a “
step towards the internal destabilization of the country
”.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: why Russia has no interest in using nuclear weapons
Russian officials have repeatedly issued thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if the conflict escalates significantly.
However, if Belarus does not take a direct part in the conflict in Ukraine, Moscow used its territory to conduct its offensive on Kiev last year or to carry out strikes, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Vladimir Putin motivated his decision on Saturday by the United Kingdom's desire to send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, as recently mentioned by a British official.