Russia clashes with US over tactical nukes for Belarus

United Nations: Russia and the US clashed in the United Nations on Friday over Moscow’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which neighboring Ukraine denounced as a desperate Kremlin attempt to avoid military defeat and “threaten the world with nuclear apocalypse.”

China, without naming Russia, made clear its opposition to the planned deployment.

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya called for the U.N. Security Council meeting following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on March 25 that his country plans to deploy tactical, comparatively short-range and small-yield nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko upped the ante just before the council meeting, saying Russia might also deploy strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus, which Russian forces have used as a staging ground for the war in Ukraine.

Kyslytsya said it took only four days for Putin to violate a pledge he made to China’s President Xi Jinping in a joint statement at their recent meeting in Moscow. It declared that all nuclear states should refrain from deploying nuclear weapons outside their countries and withdraw those deployed abroad. The same point was emphasized by the US and Chinese deputy UN ambassadors, among others. “We call for the abolition of the nuclear-sharing arrangements and advocate no deployment of nuclear weapons abroad by all nuclear weapons states, and the withdrawal of nuclear weapons deployed abroad,” said Geng Shuang of China. Calling nuclear weapons “the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” Geng reiterated that China opposes armed attacks against nuclear power plants and the threat or use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He said “nuclear proliferation must be prevented and nuclear crisis avoided.”