Russian President Vladimir Putin earned fresh condemnation from President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday after moving forward with a plan to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring ally Belarus.
Putin first described plans to move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in March. On Thursday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told the Russian state-owned news outlet Sputnik that the tactical nuclear deployment had begun.
The deployment marks the first time Russian tactical nuclear weapons have been deployed outside of Russia since 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia has armed Belarus with Iskander-M missiles, which are hypersonic missiles that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads. He also said Russia had transferred some Su-25 aircraft that have been converted to be able to launch nuclear weapons….