Belarus president explains need for nuclear weapons

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko explained during a solemn meeting on the occasion of Independence Day why Belarus needed nuclear weapons again.

President Lukashenko reminded that he did not make the decision to withdraw nuclear weapons from Belarus, according to BelTA.

On the contrary, he, “as the new leader of a developing sovereign state, was forced to fulfil the decision taken before him by the former leader of the country”, while strong pressure was put on him to withdraw nuclear weapons from Belarus.

The topic of nuclear weapons supplies arose again during the negotiations between Belarus and Russia at the initiative of the Belarusian side.

 “This is not nuclear blackmail. Along with the Russian leader, we do not intend to blackmail anyone, especially with nuclear weapons,” President Lukashenko noted.

 “This thesis in negotiations and this topic with the Russian leader appeared after the Polish people appealed to the Americans and asked to bring nuclear weapons to Poland,” the Belarusian president added. “Why do we pretend that nothing is happening, I told President Putin.”

“We consulted for a long time and came to the conclusion that we should be ready to respond to them within 24 hours. For this purpose, we should prepare and we will prepare. We do not threaten and do not blackmail anyone. We handed over our weapons (to Russia) and I am entitled to ask and demand from the president of fraternal Russia to make everybody afraid to cross the state border of the Republic of Belarus. That is what I did,” the Belarusian leader noted.