Lukashenko Says Russian Nuclear Weapons More Powerful Than US Atomic Bombs Used In Hiroshima, Nagasaki: 'I Demanded Them'

In a remark aimed at threatening the U.S., Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country has begun receiving shipments of Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

What Happened: Lukashenko, in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel, said some of these weapons are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. 

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“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said, reported Reuters. “The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

The deployment of tactical weapons in Belarus marks Moscow’s first positioning of these warheads beyond the borders of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin last week announced that Russia would retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons and would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.

The two countries, in March, had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Minsk, citing the long-standing deployment of such weapons by Washington in various European countries over several decades.

The U.S. has widely criticized Russia's move, while President Joe Biden-led administration has affirmed that the country has no plans to change its position on strategic nuclear weapons and has not observed any indications of Moscow preparing to utilize nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 

See Also: Putin Reportedly Plotted ‘Total Cleansing’ Of Ukraine, Says Russia Will Place Nuclear Weapons In Belarus

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994 and is considered Europe’s longest-serving leader, stated that he didn’t just request the weapons from Putin but rather “I demanded them back.”

“We have always been a target,” Lukashenko said. “They (the West) have wanted to tear us to pieces since 2020. No one has so far fought against a nuclear country, a country that has nuclear weapons.”

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