
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi
Reuters
Russia is moving forward with plans to station nuclear weapons in Belarus from early July
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Vladimir Putin has confirmed arrangements to deploy nuclear weapons to ally Belarus once facilities are up and running from July 8-9.
Speaking to his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in Sochi on Friday, the Russian President declared: "So everything is according to plan, everything is stable."
The two presidents previously agreed on plans to deploy Russian land-based short-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Moscow's closest ally, where they will remain under Russian command.
The pair met at Bocharov Ruchey, the summer residence of the Russian President, to confirm the timeline for repositioning the Russian nuclear arsenal.
Vladimir Putin has announced plans to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus
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It is a time frame that carries significance for the NATO Summit is due to take place on 11-12 July in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
It is the first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Speaking on state television on May 25, Putin re-confirmed the long standing and stalling decision to send warheads over the border into Belarus.
The U.S State Department denounced the deployment plan at the time but stated there were no signs that Russia was preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, recently travelled to Minsk and told his Belarusian counterpart: "The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war on our countries," according to the Russian defence ministry.
President Lukshenko previously claimed that tactical nuclear weapons were already on the way, yet the Kremlin did not back this statement up at the time.
Puppet and master
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Lukashenko told reporters in Moscow: "The movement of the nuclear weapons has already begun."
Asked whether or not they were already in Belarus, the president responded: "Possibly. When I get back I will check."
Matthew Miller, U.S. State Department spokesperson, described the plans as !the latest example of irresponsible behaviour that we have seen from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over a year ago."
The news comes following Ukraine declaring a state of emergency after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.
Putin believes Russia is engaged in a proxy war with the West
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The cause of the disaster remains officially unknown, for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused “Russian terrorists” of destroying the dam, while Moscow points the finger at Kyiv-instructed sabotage.
Zelensky wrote on Twitter: "Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land... The terrorists will not be able to stop Ukraine with water, missiles or anything else."
He continued: "Now Russia is guilty of brutal ecocide. Any comments are superfluous. The world must react.
"Russia is at war against life, against nature, against civilisation. Russia must leave the Ukrainian land and must be held fully accountable for its terror."
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has also thanked Greta Thunberg for her public reprimand of Putin’s “unprovoked full-scale invasion” and the effect it has had on the environment.
A step too far for Thunberg, the climate activist tweeted: “This ecocide as a continuation of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine is yet another atrocity which leaves the world lost for words.”