According to RIA Novosti, speaking on Belarus 1 TV channel, Ambassador Krutoy said that despite the Budapest Memorandum, all treaties and agreements on ensuring security for countries that have abandoned nuclear weapons are violated. Therefore, Belarus must be absolutely guaranteed security in case its territory is attacked.
Mr. Krutoy also said that the security councils of Russia and Belarus should soon finalize a draft security concept for the Union State so that Minsk would have clear security guarantees from Moscow if it were to face a military attack. “We have never had the level of interaction that we have had in recent years. But now, both the times and the challenges are completely different,” Ambassador Krutoy stressed.
At the end of March, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia and Belarus had agreed that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be stationed in Belarus without violating international law. Putin stressed that this was nothing unusual and was similar to the US deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe. “The United States has long been stationing tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of allied countries, NATO countries and in Europe. We have agreed with Belarus that we will do the same. I would like to emphasize that this does not violate international obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” the Kremlin leader said.
Some sources believe that Russia's plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be implemented as early as this summer. As President Putin stated, Russia has already deployed a number of aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and has also handed over the Iskander missile system capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Minsk. However, Russia will not actually transfer control of nuclear weapons to Belarus. Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that Russia's plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will force NATO to assess the seriousness of the situation.
In 1999, Russia and Belarus reached an agreement on the creation of a Union State. In this connection, Russian President Putin recently revealed that the two sides will prepare a security concept of the Union State due to the growing tensions in the world . According to Putin, this document is aimed at formulating the basic tasks for the interaction of Russia and Belarus in the context of increasing tensions on the border of the two countries as well as sanctions and information warfare launched against Moscow and Minsk. Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that in the face of the West's military pressure, the buildup of forces and means near the borders of Belarus and Russia, the two sides need to quickly protect the national interests of the two countries and strengthen coordination.
A few days earlier, in a telegram to his Belarusian counterpart Lukashenko, Russian President Putin said that the mechanisms of the Union State according to the agreement reached in 1999 "are being strongly improved".
According to Sputnik, the Belarusian Defense Ministry also recently declared that both Belarusians and Russians are ready to carry out tasks to protect the Union State at any time and in any situation.
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