In a scathing attack on Saturday, Russia told the United States not to lecture it for deploying tactical nuclear weapons in the neighbouring country of Belarus, its steadfast ally that has backed Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden, on May 26, lambasted Kremlin for resorting to sending nukes to Minsk, saying that he felt “extremely negative” about the deployment. ”Extremely negative is my reaction” Biden said in his response during a presser when asked about the Russian nuclear deployment after he left Washington for Camp David.
Issuing a harsh response to Biden’s statement, Russia’s embassy in the United States said in a statement: “It is the sovereign right of Russia and Belarus to ensure their security by means we deem necessary amid a large-scale hybrid war unleashed by Washington against us. The measures we undertake are fully consistent with our international legal obligations.”
US deployed nukes in EU for decades: Moscow
Russia hit back at the US saying that Washington had, for decades, deployed nuclear weapons across Europe including the countries bordering Russian territory. Notably, Moscow had used NATO’s expanding military presence on its “doorstep” as a pretext for invading neighbouring Ukraine, apparently, for its own sovereignty and national security. This week, Kremlin announced that it is implementing the first deployment of nuclear weapons outside its borders since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s staunchest ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meanwhile noted that the weapons were already on the move for deployment. The move was slammed by US State Department.
During his state speeches, authoritarian leader Putin asserted that Russia which possesses more nuclear weapons than any other country, will use all means to defend itself and its territory if provoked. In February, Putin declared that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact that it has with the US. Russia’s President slammed Washington and its NATO allies for openly announcing the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. “They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” Putin asserted. The United States denounced nuclear deployment in Minsk, saying that it is the gravest nuclear danger since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken labelled the development “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible”.
