Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has slammed the West for staying silent about Russia’s deployment of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, warning that the missiles and bombs were now “in the hands of a crazy dictator.”
Tikhanovskaya’s alarming comments to BBC News came after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced Tuesday that his country has started taking delivery of Moscow’s tactical warheads as part of a deal the two allied nations had signed last month.
“The bombs are three times more powerful than those [dropped on] Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Lukashenko bragged, speaking on a road in a forest clearing with military vehicles staged behind him and a military storage facility visible in the background.
This is Moscow’s first deployment of short-range warheads outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Under the Russia-Belarus agreement, the Kremlin will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, but in an interview with the Russian state TV channel Rossiya-1, Lukashenko dismissed the notion that it was a hurdle to using them quickly if he felt such a move was necessary, saying he and Russian President Vladimir Putin could pick up the phone to each other “at any moment.”
The US has criticized Putin’s decision to deploy the warheads in Belarus but has said it has no intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons and has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
But according to Tikhanovskaya, the US and other NATO members are making a mistake by playing down the transfer of the warheads to Belarus.
“This deployment creates no new threat to NATO countries, so they don’t take it seriously,” Tikhanovskaya said. “But Belarus is our country and we don’t want nuclear weapons.”
“This is like the last step to keeping our independence, and they [in the West] are staying silent about that,” she added.
The US believes Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons — more than any other country — which include bombs that can be carried by aircraft, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery rounds.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a much lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of wiping out whole cities.
Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Putin who has allowed his country to be used by Russian forces to attack neighboring Ukraine, said the nuclear deployment will act as a deterrent against potential Western aggressors.
Belarus borders three NATO member countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
Lukashenko, 68, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, making him Europe’s longest-serving leader, said he didn’t simply ask Putin for the weapons, but “demanded” them.
“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.”
Lukashenko has repeatedly accused the West of trying to remove him from power after mass protests against his authoritarian regime erupted in 2020 in the wake of a presidential election that the opposition said he had rigged.
His opponent, Tikhanovskaya, who is widely believed to have won the election, fled Belarus and has been living in exile with her children for the past three years.
In March, a Belarus court sentenced her to 15 years in absentia after finding her guilty of treason and conspiracy to seize power.
With Post wires
