Russia's Putin confirms sent nukes to Belarus as warning to West

Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday confirmed for the first time that he mobilised tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus as a reminder to the West that it could not inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. 

Putin said that Russian tactical nuclear warheads had already been delivered to close ally Belarus, but stressed that he saw no need for Russia to resort to nuclear weapons for now. 

He spoke at Russia's flagship economic forum in St Petersburg.

He also confirmed that the tactical nuclear weapons had been moved to Belarus after negotiating with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. 

Putin said that the first nuclear warheads had been delivered to Belarus, but only the first part. He also said that the job would be completed by the end of the summer or by the end of the year.

The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus was Moscow's first such move outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin said that the move was intended as a warning to the West about arming and supporting Ukraine. 

He added that it was an element of deterrence so that all those who were thinking about inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia would not be oblivious to this circumstance. 

Belarusian President Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Putin, said that his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, including some three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Japan in 1945.

In March, Putin announced that he had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the US deployment of such weapons in European countries over many decades.

The West wants "Strategic Defeat", according to Putin

The US has criticized Putin's decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus but has said it has no intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons and has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon. 

The Russian step is being watched closely by Washington, its allies, and China, which has repeatedly cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. 

Putin said that the West was doing everything it could to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine, but Russia had no need to resort to nuclear weapons for now. Putin signalled no change in Moscow's nuclear posture, which only envisages such a move if the existence of the Russian state is threatened.

Putin said that talks with the West to reduce Russia's vast nuclear arsenal, the world's largest, were a non-starter. He said that a Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces in Ukraine had not had any meaningful success and that Kyiv's forces were suffering heavy losses and had "no chance" against Russia's military. Putin suggested that Ukraine would soon run out of its own military equipment, making it totally reliant on hardware supplied by the West, undermining its ability to fight for long.

Warning of F-16S

Ukraine has outperformed Russia's much larger army in nearly 16 months of the war, forcing it into major retreats around the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson. Ukraine says it has recaptured seven villages and 100 square km (38 square miles) in the early stages of its counter-offensive. 

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday its forces had repelled numerous attempted counterattacks by the Ukrainian army at different frontline locations in the last 24 hours, inflicting severe losses on Kyiv's forces. 

Putin said Western-supplied hardware such as German-made Leopard tanks was regularly destroyed and if Kyiv got U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets from its allies, they would go up in flames too.

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