LONDON—Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be physically deployed on the territory of Belarus “in several days” and that he had the facilities to host longer-range missiles too if ever needed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying them in close ally Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready on July 7–8.
The deployment will be Moscow’s first move of such warheads—shorter-range less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield—outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union….