UKRAINE’s government has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to “counter the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail” after Russian president Vladimir Putin revealed plans to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus.
One Ukrainian official said that Russia “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage”.
But Moscow said it was making the move in response to the West’s increasing military support for Ukraine.
utin announced the plan in a television interview that aired on Saturday, saying it was triggered by a UK decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armour-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.
The Russian president argued that by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia was following the lead of the United States. He noted that Washington had nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
“We are doing what they have been doing for decades, stationing them in certain allied countries, preparing the launch platforms and training their crews,” he said.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry condemned the move in a statement on Sunday and demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
“Ukraine expects effective action to counter the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail by the UK, China, the US and France, including as permanent members of the UN Security Council, which have a special responsibility to prevent threats of aggression using nuclear weapons,” the statement read.
“The world must be united against someone who endangers the future of human civilisation.”
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, tweeted on Sunday that Mr Putin’s announcement was “a step towards internal destabilisation” of Belarus that maximised “the level of negative perception and public rejection” of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society. The Kremlin, Danilov added, “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage”.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41102122.html
