Belarus says Putin will use ‘most terrible’ weapons if pushed

President Alexander Lukashenko with Russian leader Vladimir Putin (Picture: AP)

The president of Belarus has warned the Kremlin will use nuclear weapons if it fears collapse.  

Speaking at an annual address to Belarusian lawmakers and other officials, President Alexander Lukashenko claimed both his country and Russia were under direct threat of attack from the West. 

The Belarusian leader said: ‘Take my word for it, I have never deceived you. [The West] are preparing to invade Belarus, to destroy our country.’

Declining to provide evidence to support these claims, he added: ‘It is impossible to defeat a nuclear power.

‘If the Russian leadership understands that the situation threatens to cause Russia’s disintegration, it will use the most terrible weapon.’

Mr Lukashenko’s address comes after President Vladimir Putin announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

This would mark the first time Moscow has deployed such missiles outside Russian borders since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Mr Lukashenko has warned that the West plans to ‘invade’ both Belarus and Russia (Picture: AP)

Concerns have also been raised these weapons may be accompanied by missiles capable of making intercontinental strikes at some point in the future. 

A longstanding ally of the Kremlin, Belarus has not formally entered the war in Ukraine, which has lasted for more than a year and seen thousands killed and millions displaced. 

It has nevertheless provided a crucial launchpad for Russian military forces engaged in the conflict, while also regularly conducting joint military training exercises with Russian troops. 

Mr Lukashenko’s statements also come after an analyst with Ukraine’s presidential research group said the Russian president has been left in a ‘desperate’ situation by the failures of the Russian invasion so far.

Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at the National Institute for Strategic Studies under Volodymyr Zelensky, said today: ‘Ukraine is the biggest failure in [Putin’s] career, when he wanted his biggest achievement to be a new Russian empire.’

Mr Bielieskov added that with the continued support of Western allies, it is conceivable that Ukraine may be able to drive Kremlin troops out of occupied territories as early as the second or third quarter of this year.

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