Kyiv: The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Sunday called for an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council over Russia’s plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow and Minsk had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating international commitments, adding that the United States had long stationed its tactical nuclear arms on the territory of its allies and NATO countries. The construction of the weapons storage facility in Belarus will be completed on July 1, Putin said.
“We demand that an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council be immediately convened for this purpose,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called this decision a “provocative step.”
The ministry also appealed to the countries of the G7 and the European Union to “warn the Belarusian authorities of the far-reaching consequences” for Minsk if it agrees to position Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons on its territory.
