Minsk blames the actions of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union as a trigger to accept that Russia distributes tactical nuclear weapons on its territory; a move considered by NATO allies as “dangerous”. Meanwhile, Ukraine confirmed the arrival of new tanks from Europe and the war intensifies in the town of Avdiivka.
The deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus responds to the “pressures” exerted by Western nations on this nation in recent years. This is how the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs justified the agreement reached with the Kremlin so that these types of weapons can be distributed in its territory.
“Over the past two and a half years, Belarus has been subjected to unprecedented political, economic and informational pressure from the United States, the United Kingdom and their NATO allies, as well as the member states of the European Union,” reads the official statement.
The line maintained by the Belarusian ruling party is very similar to that defended by the Kremlin days ago and is based on the fact that this movement does not violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that these types of weapons have already been deployed by the United States in other countries. NATO allies such as Turkey, Poland or the Netherlands.
A new escalation in the war in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin’s announcement came at a time when the war front in Donbass seems to continue to stagnate and when the Kremlin has once again put the nuclear threat in the war on the table, although from the White House, in In the words of spokesman John Kirby, they do not see Russia coming close to using this type of weapon.
The Russian president, for his part, affirmed that it was Lukshenko who had been requesting the deployment of this type of weapons in his territory for some time, fundamental in the geopolitics of Eastern Europe and used as a place of invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces since the past. February 24, 2022.
Belarus is an ally of the Kremlin in the area and has been treated as such by Russia, especially during the war with Ukraine. For example, in recent times, Moscow has financed the modernization of Belarusian warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons, something that Lukashenko has repeatedly mentioned.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a relatively short range and much lower power than long-range strategic missile warheads. Unlike the latter, which have been subject to arms control agreements between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War, tactical weapons have never been limited by any such pact.
In fact, the amount that many countries possess is unknown. Russia, for example, has never released the total number it has, although the US government believes Russia possesses some 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, including airborne bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery shells.
These weapons have a much more complex transport than the process of launching a ballistic missile, since they must be stored in specific places and mobilized in specialized aircraft for this purpose. Precisely, the planes that Belarus has managed to modernize thanks to Russia.
The Kremlin plans to start training Belarusian pilots to handle these planes from April and estimates that the facilities to house these weapons in Belarus would be ready by July of this year.
A new step that brings back the nuclear threat to Ukraine at a time of stagnation on the front.
Ukraine begins receiving Leopard tanks from its European allies
For its part, Germany announced the delivery to Ukraine of 18 Leopard tanks that will have the objective of serving on the war front. They were joined in the following hours by three more from Portugal and 14 British Challenger tanks.
Requests from kyiv for more weapons have been resounding within Europe for months. There was a lot of debate around this idea within the European Union, but finally several countries of this organization agreed to supply Ukraine with their own tanks in order to deal with Russia.
The number of tanks that kyiv had was one of the biggest shortcomings in the fight against Russia, one of the nations with the largest number of these vehicles in the world.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that the amount of weapons sent by his allies was still insufficient on some war fronts, such as Bakhmut, where Ukrainians and Russians have been fighting for months.
The front remains in Bakhmut, but intensifies in Avdiivka
Meanwhile, reports on the front remain mixed between the Kremlin and Ukraine and its Western allies. While Moscow sources assure that there have been advances by their troops in the city of Bakhmut, a town that they have been trying to take since the beginning of winter and whose defense has become one of the bloodiest battles in Europe since World War II , from Kiev affirm that the situation remains stable.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian leader of the Moscow-controlled part of the Donetsk region, declared that most of the Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the AZOM metallurgical factory, located on the west bank of the Bakhmutka River.
“The important thing here was to clear the industrial zone of the plant itself. You can practically say that this has already been done, and the men have just finished off the (Ukrainian) fighters who are only left there in solitary groups,” Pushilin told the press. Russian state television.
The arrival of European tanks and keeping Bakhmut is essential for kyiv if it wants to launch a counteroffensive in the Donbass in the summer months. Russian sources estimate that around this industrial city Ukraine has concentrated up to 80,000 soldiers.
The area in which Russia does seem to have the most significant advances is that of the town of Avdiivka, 90 kilometers south of Bakhmut. Massive shelling has been reported here and British intelligence forces have reported the loss of several tanks by Russia.
After winter months in which neither side has made significant progress on the battlefield and in which the number of victims has multiplied, both sides seem convinced to continue fighting rather than sit down to negotiate a possible ceasefire. , as nations like China have raised.
