Russian nuclear missiles to be sited in Belarus

VLADIMIR PUTIN will give nuclearcapable missiles to Belarus and upgrade its airforce to counter the “aggressive” West.

They could be the first such missiles stationed in the country, which approved nuclear weapons on its territory in a referendum on Feb 27 three days after Russia invaded Ukraine. In May, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said he had bought some older missiles from Russia that are also capable of firing nuclear warheads but it is not clear if they have been delivered.

“In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Mr Putin told the visiting Mr Lukashenko yesterday.

Mr Putin justified upgrading Belarus’s missile capabilities because he said that Europe had 200 tactical missiles ready to use and 257 aircraft capable of firing them. Mr Lukashenko said that he was concerned by the “aggressive attitude” of Belarus’s European neighbours and he asked Mr Putin to upgrade Belarus’s fighter jets so that they could carry and fire nuclear missiles.

“Minsk must be ready for anything, even the use of serious weaponry to defend our fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok,” Mr Lukashenko said, a reference that lumped Belarus and Russia into one united “fatherland”.

Mr Lukashenko is Mr Putin’s closest ally and has supported his invasion of Ukraine. He allowed Belarus to be used as a launchpad for the invasion but has kept Belarusian soldiers out of the war.

But Ukrainian officials said yesterday that Russian fighter jets fired 12 missiles at targets in Ukraine from the safety of Belarusian air space.

The promises of military cooperation came as Russian MPs said that a row over shipments to Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave surrounded by the EU, could widen Russia’s war with Ukraine into Europe.