Putin and Lukashenko boast about nuclear weapons: "We are ready to defend our shared homeland"

Moscow“We do not want to be dragged into an arms race”, said Vladimir Putin after launching the largest strategic nuclear weapons exercises in Russian history – those with long range, designed to strike the enemy's centers of power. For the first time, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has commanded such tests together with his Russian counterpart. These maneuvers are taking place coinciding with warnings from Volodymyr Zelensky that Moscow is trying to drag Minsk into attacking Kyiv from its territory.

the last treaty that limited atomic weapons“We pose no threat to anyone,” continued Lukashenko, “but we have these weapons and are prepared to defend our shared homeland from Brest to Vladivostok.” “If we have something in our hands, we must know how to use it,” he concluded. In recent years, Belarus has become a repository of Russian strategic weapons such as Iskander missiles and Su-25 aircraft, and stores nuclear warheads.

The exercises lasted three days, consisted of “the preparation and use of nuclear forces in the face of an aggressive threat”, and involved almost 65,000 soldiers. All elements of the nuclear triad were displayed: Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles and Sineva ballistic missiles, launched from ships and submarines; Iars intercontinental ballistic missiles, propelled from land; Kinjal aeroballistic missiles, launched from aircraft, and Tu-95MS strategic bombers.

These maneuvers come after Donald Trump refused in February to extend the last treaty that imposed limits on atomic weapons. The Kremlin, which advocates deterrence much more than other countries, does not hide that this is a warning to a West that is rearming. “Any exercise is a signal,” stated spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Russia has not at all liked the discussion in Finland to suppress a decades-long veto on the deployment of nuclear weapons and the plans of France and Poland to conduct military tests in the Baltic Sea.

Tension between Ukraine and Belarus

In this context, Zelensky has insisted that, as happened at the start of the invasion, Russia could involve Belarus in a military offensive from its territory towards the regions of Kyiv and Chernihiv. Ukrainian secret services and the army have reinforced surveillance on the border in an operation “without precedent”. Zelensky has assured that his intention is for Lukashenko to “senserealistically that there will be consequences if they carry out aggressive actions against Ukraine”. 

The Belarusian president, however, although a few days ago he said he was “preparing for war”, denies having any intention of entering the conflict against Ukraine. “We will only be involved in one case: if aggression is committed against our territory”, he indicated to the state agency BELTA. At the same time, he stated that he is willing to meet with Zelensky “wherever” to discuss the “problems in relations” between the two countries.

The NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, also warned on Wednesday that if Russia uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine, it will receive a “devastating” response from the allies. This possibility seems very remote at the moment. Despite Russian nuclear doctrine and calls from the most radical sectors, Moscow has only brandished the atomic threat rhetorically. It did not dare to use tactical nuclear weapons when Ukraine invaded the Russian region of Kursk or in reaction to repeated drone attacks against Russian territory.