President Vladimir Putin said Russia is preparing to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, escalating a confrontation with the U.S. and its allies over the war in Ukraine.
Moscow isn’t handing control of the weapons to Belarus, and won’t be in breach of its nonproliferation obligations under an agreement with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said in comments broadcast on state television Saturday.
The U.S. has “long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” he said.
