The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has “no reason to doubt” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement that Russia has moved the first batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
This was reported by CNN with reference to senior DIA officials.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has about 4,477 deployed and reserve nuclear warheads, including about 1,900 tactical nuclear weapons. It is unclear how much of this arsenal Putin intends to move, and U.S. and Western officials have not publicly confirmed that any weapons have been transferred to Belarus.
On March 25, Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. It was planned that the construction of a nuclear weapons storage facility would be completed in the country on July 1, 2023. At the time, NSDC Secretary Aleksey Danilov called the deployment of nuclear weapons a step toward internal destabilization of Belarus:
- May 25 Self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says that Russian nuclear weapons have already begun to move to Belarus under bilateral agreements.
- On June 14, Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka confirmed that his country had begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons, which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The exact number of nuclear weapons in Belarus is unknown.
