During an interview, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that states will be equipped with nuclear weapons if they are prepared to “join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.”
This comes only days after Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia had begun transferring nuclear weapons to its territory, which borders the European Union.
The movement and re-stationing of “tactical” nuclear weapons in Belarus drew Western outrage and heightened tensions with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members over the Ukraine conflict.
According to media reports, Lukashenko made the remark during an interview with Russia’s Pavel Zarubin, which was taped on Thursday but was aired on Sunday on Ukrainska Pravda.
He claimed that any countries who joined the “Union State” treaty between Russia and Belarus would be provided with nuclear weapons, calling the prospect a “unique chance to unite”.
As quoted by reports, Lukashenko told Zarubin: “If someone is worried… I don’t think [President of Kazakhstan] Kassym Tokayev is worried about this, but if something suddenly happens, then no one minds Kazakhstan and other countries having the same close relations as we have with the Russian Federation.”
“It’s very simple. [Countries] should join the union of Belarus with Russia, and that’s it: there will be nuclear weapons for everyone,” he added.
For the uninitiated, Russia and Belarus are legally members of a Union State, a borderless union and alliance between the two former Soviet republics.
So yet, there have been no details about what Lukashenko intended to say or whether there is a formal plan to ask nations to join the “Union State” of Russia and Belarus.
Russia is delivering nuclear weapons to Belarus
When claims surfaced earlier this week that Russia was delivering nuclear weapons to Belarus in the Ukraine conflict, Lukashenko responded, according to state news agency Belta: “It was necessary to prepare storage sites, and so on. We did all this. Therefore, the movement of nuclear weapons began.”
While promising the safety of those weapons, he said, “This is not even up for discussion. Don’t worry about nuclear weapons. We are responsible for this. These are serious issues. Everything will be alright here.”
Lukashenko, a strong Putin friend, has permitted Russia’s Ukraine incursion to use his territory, which borders Ukraine as well as EU and NATO allies Poland and Lithuania.
The Russia-Ukraine war began in February of last year, when Putin directed his soldiers to undertake a “special military operation” against the neighbor. Since the beginning of the war, each has accused the other of provoking nuclear war.