NATO Secretary on deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus: There are some preparations but no significant changes

So far NATO has not detected any changes in the deployment of nuclear forces of Russia that would require it to take corresponding steps.

Source: Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, at a press conference in Brussels, as reported by a European Pravda correspondent.

Stoltenberg remarked that he "treats Russia’s statement about deploying its nuclear weapons in Belarus in all seriousness".

"We have seen first preparations for this. We will attentively monitor this situation and remain cautious. Of course, this is a part of nuclear ‘signalling’, nuclear rhetoric, which we have been witnessing for the last few years, when Russia modernised and deployed more and more nuclear weapons," he explained.

He stated that at the moment NATO has not detected any changes in the deployment of the Russian nuclear forces "which would require any changes in the deployment of our [nuclear – ed.] forces".

"But we are constantly discussing what measures we should take, and the Nuclear Planning Group [highest nuclear policy body of the Alliance – ed.] considered this issue as well," Stoltenberg added.

On 25 May, Ministers of Defence of Russia and Belarus signed documents about the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. That very day Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, claimed that Russia has started to transfer its nuclear weapons to Belarus.

On Wednesday, 14 June, Lukashenko claimed that Belarus has started receiving Russian nuclear weapons; he claimed that some items are three times more powerful than the nuclear bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

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