kyiv wants to urgently convene the UN Security Council. Ukraine on Sunday called on the West and China to end Russia's "nuclear blackmail" following Vladimir Putin's announcement that Moscow would deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Over the past year, Russian officials have multiplied barely veiled threats to use nuclear weapons if the conflict with kyiv were to experience a significant escalation. Belarus, an ally of Moscow, borders Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.
"Ukraine expects effective actions to counter the Kremlin's nuclear blackmail from the UK, China, the US and France," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We demand that an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council be immediately convened for this purpose," he added.
"We demand that an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council be convened immediately for this purpose", he added, also calling on the G7 and the EU to put pressure on Belarus by threatening it with "consequences considerable" if she were to accept the Russian deployment.
On Sunday evening, Paris condemned Vladimir Putin's intention to deploy these tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, and called on Russia to "demonstrate the responsibility expected of a nuclear-armed state and to reconsider this destabilizing deal,” according to a Foreign Office statement. "This agreement represents a further element of erosion of the international architecture of arms control and strategic stability in Europe", underlined the spokesperson for the Quai d'Orsay.
The first Western country to react to Vladimir Putin's announcement, Germany denounced a "new attempt at nuclear intimidation" by Moscow. "We are not going to let ourselves be deviated from our course" by these threats, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity. Earlier Sunday, Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that "the Kremlin has taken Belarus as a nuclear hostage" and represented a "step towards the internal destabilization of the country", led since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko.
EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell warned on Sunday that the EU was "ready" to adopt new sanctions against Belarus if the country deployed Russian nuclear weapons on its territory. “Belarus' hosting of Russian nuclear weapons would be an irresponsible escalation and a threat to European security. Belarus can still stop this, it's their choice. The EU stands ready to react with new sanctions,” Josep Borrell said on Twitter.
On Saturday, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will deploy "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus and that ten aircraft have already been outfitted to be ready to use such weaponry. “There is nothing unusual here: the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long been deploying their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies,” Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Russian television.
"We agreed to do the same," he added, saying he planned to "train the crews" from April 3 and "complete the construction of a special warehouse for tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory." on July 1. Vladimir Putin “admits that he is afraid of losing (the war) and that all he can do is scare,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said on Twitter on Sunday.
Vladimir Putin motivated his decision on Saturday by the United Kingdom's desire to send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, as recently mentioned by a British official. The Russian leader threatened to also use this type of shell, used to pierce armor, if kyiv were to receive it.
He called this type of weapon shell among "the most dangerous" and which "generates what is called radiation dust". During recent negotiations in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the two leaders had stated in a joint statement that a nuclear war "must never be started", because "there can be no winners".
Several Russian officials, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, however, have threatened Ukraine and the West with nuclear weapons since the start of the Russian offensive launched on February 24, 2022. important New Start nuclear disarmament treaty signed with the United States, although it has promised to respect the limitation of its nuclear arsenal until the effective end of this agreement on February 5, 2026. Russian nuclear doctrine does not provide for Russia's pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons, but only in response to an attack on it or its allies, or in the event of a "threat to the very existence of the state".
Consult our file: War in Ukraine
