MINSK, June 30. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that he is convinced that nuclear weapons will not be used as long as they are deployed in Belarus.
"The longer we live, the more clearly we see that they (nuclear weapons - TASS) should stay here, in Belarus, in a safe place. And I am sure that we will never have to use them as long as they are here and that no enemy will ever step onto our soil," the BelTA agency quoted him as saying.
He said that he is criticized by Western countries as well as the Belarusian opposition, who once were against the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country, for the decision to deploy nuclear weapons. As for the nuclear plant, in his words, time has shown that it was the only right decision. Moreover, he noted that even Europe has returned to nuclear energy having proclaimed it safe and green. "I once said: if you don’t know what to do in this or that situation and your enemies are yelling, do the opposite. If they are yelling that nuclear weapons are bad, do the opposite," he said.
"Today, they are saying the same about the nuclear weapons that have been brought to Belarus. <…> I have already commented on this. It was my initiative," he stressed.
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. On June 23, Lukashenko said that a larger part of warheads was already in Belarus.