On Tuesday Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko confirmed that Belarus has nuclear weapons which he described as “probably five times more powerful than the Oreshnik,” referencing the Russian hypersonic missile system which could carry either a conventional or nuclear payload.
The statements were made during a question-and-answer session with factory workers, the BelTA news agency has reported.
“I had nuclear warheads deployed here. More than a dozen of them. Many people dismiss it as a joke, saying that ‘nobody brought anything’. We did. The fact that they [opponents] say it’s a joke means they’ve missed it. They haven’t even noticed how we brought them here,” the Belarusian President said, according to BelTA on Tuesday.
During that event, Lukashenko warned his adversaries about invading Belarus.
“Using nuclear weapons is a big responsibility. Nobody has pressed the red button after Hiroshima and Nagasaki [the U.S. nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities in 1945],” Lukashenko said according to BelTA on Tuesday. “But I have warned all enemies, ‘friends’ and rivals: if you step on the state border line, the response will be instantaneous. I will not look at nuclear weapons or anything else.”
Note that last sentence’s meaning may have been distorted in its translation to English, conducted by BelTA.
Russia gave Belarus the nuclear weapons, according to its President.
“We agreed on this with the Russians even before they gave us back nuclear weapons. It is not yet the weapons that we renounced back in the day. Those were strategic weapons. These are tactical nuclear weapons,” Lukashenko said according to BelTA on Tuesday.
Interestingly, Western officials recently discussed giving Ukraine nuclear weapons, something Ukraine is hopeful for and Ukrainian ruler Vladimir Zelensky has called for, although it has since been reported that the transfer won’t go forward. Notably, Russia will see a Western transfer of nuclear weapons to Ukraine as a nuclear attack.