So according President Vladimir Putin, Russia will send Belarus, an ally, short-range nuclear missile weapons in the upcoming months.
Iskander-M systems, according to him, “can fire ballistic and cruise missiles of both conventional and nuclear variants.”
The systems have a 500 kilometre range (310 miles).
President Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine on February 24, tensions between Russia and the West have risen.
Following weeks of intense combat, Ukraine announced on Saturday that Russian soldiers “had entirely captured” the important eastern city of Severodonetsk.
Having taken the city, Russia now effectively controls the all of the neighbouring Donetsk and Luhansk areas, which together make up the massive industrial Donbas.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, promised to retake “all cities” taken by Russia in a late-Saturday in a video message.
Russia fired a flurry of missiles at sites in the north and west of Ukraine over the course of the previous night.
“We have taken a decision: during the next few months, we will hand over the Iskander-M tactical missile systems to Belarus,” stated Russian President Vladimir Putin at their televised meeting on Saturday in St. Petersburg.
He stated that the two countries’ defence ministries would hash out all of the transfer’s specifics.
In Kaliningrad, a tiny Russian exclave in the Baltic Sea situated between Lithuania and Poland, Iskander missiles have already been stationed.
The two presidents also talked about Lithuania’s decision, which has infuriated Moscow, to stop some items from being carried to and from Kaliningrad.
The head of Belarus referred to Lithuania’s action as “unacceptable” and “a kind of declaration of war.”
The EU has imposed sanctions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on steel and several other Russian exports. In response to Russian claims that Kaliningrad is being “blocked off,” Lithuania claims that its actions only affect 1% of the usual Russian goods transiting along the route.
In response to a question from Mr. Lukashenko, Mr. Putin also stated in St. Petersburg that Russia would cooperate in the modification of Belarusian SU-25 warplanes so they could carry nuclear bombs.
