Russian nuclear weapons have fallen into the hands of Belarusian dictator Lukashenko
![self-proclaimed president of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko Photo: Russian nuclear weapons have fallen into the hands of Belarusian dictator Lukashenko. Collage: The Gaze](https://media.thegaze.media/thegaze-october-prod/media/15-06-23/Nuclear-Belarus-01.jpg)
The first Russian nuclear weapon has arrived in Belarus, self-proclaimed president Aleksandr Lukashenko announced on Russian state television, according to BBC.
"We have received missiles and bombs from Russia," Aleksandr Lukashenko stated in an interview with the Russian TV channel "Rossiya-1".
"This weapon is three times more powerful than that which was launched from Hiroshima and Nagasaki," added the Belarusian president.
"It's in the hands of a mad dictator," stated Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, leader of the Belarusian opposition, in a BBC interview.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, warned of the danger of storing this weapon in Belarus. In a BBC interview from Warsaw, she stated that it is unwise to put this weapon "in the hands of a mad dictator." Therefore, she urged Western countries to intervene.
Tikhanovskaya accused Western politicians of having "remained silent" about the first deployment of tactical nuclear weapons outside Russia since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
"The deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus does not pose a threat to NATO countries, so they do not take this seriously," she said.
"Belarus is our country, and we don't want nuclear weapons. It's the last step towards preserving our independence. And the West is silent on this issue," complained Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that Russia would begin accumulating weapons in specially built hangars in Belarus, but his country would continue to own and control them.
This is the first case of the delivery of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus since the country voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons after the collapse of the USSR. It is also the first case since the collapse of the Soviet Union that Russia exports and stores its weapons beyond its borders.
Self-proclaimed Belarusian president Lukashenko is considered a key ally of Russia, and Belarus became the launch pad for President Putin's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In comments clearly aimed at stirring up Ukraine's allies in the West, Lukashenko stressed that the Russian bombs were "three times more powerful" than those dropped by the US on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II.
He added that he not only asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for nuclear weapons, but demanded their return, asserting that he supposedly needed nuclear weapons for protection against external aggression - a false threat that he also uses to justify his repression against the entire political opposition.