Belarusian president says his country in possession of ‘dozens’ of nuclear warheads

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country is in possession of “dozens” of nuclear warheads, state media reported on Tuesday.

“I had nuclear warheads deployed here. More than a dozen of them. Many people dismiss it as a joke, saying that ‘nobody brought anything.’ We did,” Lukashenko said during a Q&A with employees of an enterprise in the city of Borisov, according to the state news agency Belta.

“The fact that they (Belarus’ opponents) say it's a joke means they’ve missed it. They haven't even noticed how we brought them here,” Lukashenko was further quoted as saying.

Defining the use of nuclear weapons as a “great responsibility,” Lukashenko expressed that none have pressed the “nuclear weapons button” since atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945 on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US.

Lukashenko further said that he warned all of Belarus’ allies and rivals that Minsk’s response will be “immediate” should they step on the country’s border, noting: “I will not look at whether it is nuclear weapons or something else.”

“We agreed on this with the Russians before they returned the nuclear weapons to us. Not the weapons we gave them. Those were strategic weapons. And these are tactical nuclear weapons,” the Belarusian president also said.