tweeted<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cBelarus hosting Russian nuclear weapons would mean an irresponsible escalation & threat to European security. Belarus can still stop it, it is their choice. The EU stands ready to respond with further sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn an interview on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the move was triggered by Britain\u2019s decision last week to provide Ukraine with armour-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use on the battlefield. They have a short range and a low yield compared with much more powerful nuclear warheads fitted to long-range missiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move also drew swift condemnation from NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu, who called it “dangerous and irresponsible”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
about:blank<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US says there has been no indication Russia has moved nuclear weapons across its border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture,” the US Defense Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, Ukraine called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, with Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov saying the Kremlin had taken Belarus “nuclear hostage”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a “step towards the internal destabilisation of the country,” he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putin said Russia planned to maintain control over the nukes it sends to Belarus, with the construction of storage facilities to be completed by 1 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He didn\u2019t say how many nuclear weapons Russia would keep in Belarus, which shares a long border with Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US government believes Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, including bombs that can be carried by tactical aircraft, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
the launch of what President Vladimir Putin said is Russia’s new nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile on Thursday, March 1, 2018. – Copyright <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-90"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13326,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13324\/revisions\/13326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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