Belarusian leader says his warplanes have been modified to carry nukes

Belarus dictator Lukashenko says his warplanes have been modified to carry NUKES and ‘targets have been selected’ if the US and the West ‘provoke’ him

• Belarusian President says country’s warplanes can now carry nuclear weapons
• He said the aircraft modification followed meeting with Vladimir Putin in June
• He warned ‘targets have been selected’ for retaliation if West provokes Belarus
• Belarus is as close ally of Russia and has been used as a base for Ukraine invasion

Belarus’s warplanes have been upgraded to carry nuclear weapons, the country’s authoritarian leader President Alexander Lukashenko has said, adding it has ‘selected targets’ in the West if provoked.

President Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned the US and its allies against carrying out a ‘provocation’ against Belarus.

He said the aircraft modification followed his meeting with Putin in June, when he offered to make Belarusian combat aircraft nuclear-capable at Russian factories and to help train pilots.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russia, warned the West against carrying out a ‘provocation’ against Belarus

‘Do you think it was all blather?’ Lukashenko said to reporters today.

‘All of it has been done.’

Lukashenko added that ‘the targets have been selected’ for retaliation, if his warning is not heeded.

Russia has used the territory of Belarus as a staging ground to send troops into Ukraine since the invasion began in February, with Moscow and Minsk maintaining close military ties.

Lukashenko did not specify how many Belarusian warplanes received the upgrade to make them capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The Kremlin had no immediate comment on Lukashenko’s statement.

In February, Lukashenko said his country could host Russian nuclear weapons if the US and its allies deployed nuclear weapons to Nato members Poland and Lithuania, which border Belarus.

Russia has used the territory of Belarus as a staging ground to send troops into Ukraine since the invasion began in February, with Moscow and Minsk maintaining close military ties

At the June meeting between the two leaders in St Petersburg, the Belarusian President expressed concern about the ‘aggressive’, ‘confrontational’ and ‘repulsive’ policies of his country’s neighbours. 

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 28 years while relying on Russia’s political and economic support.

In 2020, Moscow helped him survive the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests in the country’s history, which followed a presidential election that the opposition and the West denounced as rigged.

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