NATO criticises Putin for ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ nuclear rhetoric

KYIV (Reuters) - NATO on Sunday criticised Vladimir Putin for what it called his “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric, a day after the Russian president said he planned to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Putin likened the move on Saturday to the U.S. stationing its weapons in Europe, while insisting that Russia would not violate its nuclear non-proliferation promises.

Although not unexpected, the plan is one of Russia’s clearest nuclear signals since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine 13 months ago, and Ukraine called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in response.

While Washington, the world’s other nuclear superpower, played down concerns about Putin’s announcement, NATO said the Russian president’s non-proliferation pledge and his description of U.S. weapons deployment overseas were way off the mark.

“Russia’s reference to NATO’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in emailed comments to Reuters on Sunday.

“Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments,” Lungescu said.

A top security adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Danilov, said Russia’s plan would also destabilise Belarus, which he said had been taken “hostage” by Moscow.

Experts said Russia’s move was significant since it had until now been proud that unlike the United States, it did not deploy nuclear weapons outside its borders. It may be the first time since the mid-1990s that it has done so.

Mykhailo Podolyak, another senior Zelenskiy adviser, on Sunday scoffed at Putin’s plan on Twitter.

“He admits that he is afraid of losing & all he can do is scare with tactics,” Podolyak write.