WASHINGTON: The United States has seen no indication that Russia has yet moved any nuclear weapons, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sunday, after Moscow announced it would station tactical nuclear arms in Belarus.
President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Saturday that Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbour and ally Belarus sparked condemnation from international bodies and Ukraine, which Moscow invaded last February.
“We have not seen any indication that he (Putin) has made good on this pledge or moved any nuclear weapons around,” Kirby told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
With fears of a nuclear war rising since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, experts believe that any strike carried out by Moscow would likely involve small-size battlefield weapons, called “tactical” as opposed to “strategic” high-powered long-range nuclear weapons.
Kirby said, however, that Washington has “seen no indication he has any intention to use nuclear weapons, period, inside Ukraine.”
The United States monitors the situation daily, he added, but that so far there was “nothing that would cause us to change our own strategic deterrent posture.”
Putin said the deployment was similar to moves from the United States, which stores such weapons in bases across Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, an analogy western allies called “misleading”.
Russia is due to start training crews on April 3 and plans to finish the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by July 1.
Kyiv on Sunday said it was seeking an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council over the announcement. The NATO alliance branded the move as “dangerous and irresponsible.”
EU threatens new sanctions on Minsk if Belarus hosts Russian nukes
On the other hand, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday that Brussels was ready to impose new sanctions on Belarus if Minsk were to host Russian nuclear weapons.
“Belarus hosting Russian nuclear weapons would mean an irresponsible escalation and threat to European security. Belarus can still stop it, it is their choice. The EU stands ready to respond with further sanctions,” he tweeted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Saturday his country would station tactical nuclear arms in Belarus.
Putin said the deployment was similar to moves from the United States, which stores such weapons in bases across Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, an analogy western allies called “misleading”.
With fears of a nuclear war rising since the invasion, experts believe that any Russian strike would likely involve small-size battlefield weapons, called “tactical” as opposed to “strategic” high-powered long-range nuclear weapons.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry accused Russia of breaching its obligations, and of undermining the “nuclear disarmament architecture and the international security system in general”.
It called on “all members of the international community to convey to the criminal Putin regime the categorical unacceptability of its latest nuclear provocations.”
In the interview broadcast Saturday, Putin said the move to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus was “nothing unusual”.
