NATO Slams Putin's 'Dangerous' Nuclear Rhetoric, As Moscow Stations Tactical Weapons In Belarus

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Sunday criticized Vladimir Putin for his “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric.

What Happened: The Russian president on Saturday said he planned to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in response to the U.S. stationing its weapons in Europe.

“There is nothing unusual here either: firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” Putin told state television.

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NATO said Putin's non-proliferation pledge and his description of U.S. weapons deployment overseas were way off the mark. “Russia’s reference to NATO’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told Reuters.

“Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments,” Lungescu said.

Oleksiy Danilov, a top security advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Putin's plan would also destabilize Belarus, which according to him, had been taken “hostage” by Moscow.

“He (Putin) admits that he is afraid of losing & all he can do is scare with tactics,” Mykhailo Podolyak, another senior advisor to Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian foreign ministry called for an extraordinary meeting of the U.N. Security Council after Russia's announcement. The war-torn nation asked the international community to “take decisive measures” to prevent Russia’s use of nuclear weapons. “Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, not as a tool of threats and intimidation.”

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