Moscow: Russia hopes that NATO can adequately assess the seriousness of the situation that led to Russia placing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday.
“We hope that the severity of the situation is adequately evaluated by the NATO functionaries, in particular those politicians and leaders of top NATO countries who aspire to, let’s say so, rule the world by the canons they have formulated for themselves,” Ryabkov told journalists.
Russia sees that its signals pass unnoticed by these countries, so they will have to deal with the changing reality. Their disregard to all this is a fundamental, profound irresponsibility of politicians in power there before their countries, peoples, and international security, Ryabkov added.
On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be placed in Belarus as a reaction to NATO’s placement of its weaponry close to Russia.
The storage for nuclear weapons there is scheduled to be finished by July 1. He added that the weaponry would be transferred to Belarus without handing over control of the weapons to Minsk. The Russian President’s message sparked significant concern among the US and European leaders.
The UN Security Council said a special meeting will be held on March 31 to discuss Putin’s announcement.
