MINSK, June 27. /TASS/. A significant part of Russian nuclear weapons, planned for deployment in Belarus, has already been delivered in the republic, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday.

"Some nuclear weapons - I won’t tell you how many, but it is a big part - have been delivered to Belarus. It is a surprise they failed to track it," Lukashenko said, according to BelTA.

He noted that the nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus are being maintained by Russian servicemen, as Belarusian forces have no such experience. Meanwhile, Lukashenko noted that, first and foremost, he himself is personally responsible for the safety of Russian nuclear weapons.

"Poles and others think that [...] the PMC Wagner will be guarding nuclear weapons and so on. The PMC Wagner won't be guarding any nuclear weapons," the BelTA news agency quotes Lukashenko as saying.

On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that at Minsk’s request, Moscow would deploy its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, similar to what the United States had long been doing on the territory of its allies. Moscow has already provided Minsk with Iskander tactical missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons and has helped Minsk to re-equip its planes to carry specialized weapons. Missile crews and pilots have undergone training in Russia. On June 16, Putin said that the first Russian nuclear warheads had already been delivered to Belarus and the entire batch would be deployed by the end of the year.