Sochi. June 9th. INTERFAX-AVN - The transfer of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus will begin after July 7-8, when the construction of special facilities is completed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"On the most sensitive issues that we have agreed on, everything is going according to plan. As you know, the preparation of the relevant facilities ends on July 7-8, and we will immediately begin activities related to the deployment of appropriate types of weapons on your territory," Putin said at a meeting with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
"Everything is according to plan, everything is stable," the Russian president added.
At the end of March this year, Putin announced an agreement with Lukashenko on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The President of the Russian Federation stated that the Iskander missile system, which can be a carrier of tactical nuclear weapons, was transferred to Belarus.
On May 25, in Minsk, the heads of the military departments of the Russian Federation and Belarus, Sergei Shoigu and Viktor Khrenin, signed documents defining the procedure for keeping Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in a special storage facility on Belarusian territory. "Russia does not transfer nuclear weapons to the Republic of Belarus: control over them and the decision to use them remains with the Russian side," Shoigu said then in Minsk.
According to official information, the Iskander-M tactical missile system was developed at the Kolomna Machine-building Design Bureau (High-Precision Complexes Holding, Rostec State Corporation). It was reported that the missiles of the complex can carry a nuclear warhead. In the variant for the Russian army, the complex includes two types of missiles: ballistic and cruise.
On April 26, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the Belarusian military, during training in the Russian Federation, studied in detail the use of tactical special ammunition of the Iskander-M missile system.
Special tactical ammunition is called for the Iskander-M complex with a nuclear warhead.
On April 14, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that it had completed the training of the Belarusian military in the operation of Su-25 attack aircraft. According to official information, new ways of using modern aviation weapons, including special (nuclear) ammunition, were mastered in the classroom.
