Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko said Tuesday that the country has received Russian nuclear weapons, which, if true, could represent a major escalation of tensions with the West.
“We have rockets and bombs we received from Russia — a bomb three times more powerful than Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Lukashenko said in an interview with Russian state television, as quoted by the New York Times.
For months, Lukashenko and Russian president Vladimir Putin have mooted the idea of moving tactical nuclear weapons, which are short-range and meant for the battlefield, to the country that borders both Russia and Ukraine. If some of Russia’s 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, or the more powerful strategic ones, make their way across the Russian border, the West would be put on high alert. Belarus borders NATO allies like Poland and Lithuania.
In May, the Russian and Belarusian defense ministers signed an agreement laying out how the weapons would be stored. The U.S. condemned the move at the time and recognized it as an attempt to put pressure on the West to stop arming Ukraine.
John Kirby, spokesman for the national security council, said “constant rhetoric” from Lukashenko “is in keeping with reckless and irresponsible ways of talking about nuclear capabilities,” the Times reported.
The comments from Lukashenko come as Ukraine has begun a counteroffensive near Zaporizhzhia. The war has seen little territory trade hands in recent months, and Ukraine will hope to further weaken a Russian morale that is flagging.
In February, Putin suspended the last remaining nuclear treaty between the U.S. and Russia which was created to limit nuclear proliferation. Inspections provided for by the treaty had already been halted prior to the suspension of the START treaty.
The Biden administration has clarified that it considers nuclear engagement a red line. Last September, Kirby said Russia would face “catastrophic consequences” if it used nuclear weapons in Ukraine.