MOSCOW, June 13. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus practiced jointly readying Belarusian combat and Russian nuclear provision forces during the second stage of the joint tactical nuclear weapon drills, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"The presidents of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus made a decision on the second stage of the non-strategic nuclear forces’ drills. This exercise practiced, in particular, jointly readying Belarusian combat employment and Russian nuclear provision units. In fulfilling their objectives, mobile formations of the Russian Defense Ministry’s 12th Main Department delivered practice nuclear munitions to field storage sites of a missile brigade’s positioning area and an attack aircraft operational airfield," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported earlier that pursuant to an instruction by President Vladimir Putin and for the purpose of raising the preparedness of the non-strategic nuclear forces for combat objectives, the General Staff had launched preparations for drills in the immediate future with missile formations of the Southern Military District with the involvement of aircraft and naval forces.

The Russian president stressed that the tactical nuclear weapon exercise was planned work that had nothing unusual. He further said that the drills would run in three stages and Belarus would join Russia at the second stage because non-strategic nuclear weapons were stored on Belarusian soil.