Budanov: Storage facilities for Russian nuclear weapons are being prepared in Belarus. The warheads have not yet been transported

Preparations for deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons are underway in Belarus. Warheads have not yet been transported.

The head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov stated this on the telethon on June 20.

"The process of preparation for possible relocation is actually ongoing. Repositories are being prepared. But as of now, not a single warhead has been moved," Budanov noted.

• On May 25, the defense ministers of Belarus and Russia Viktor Khrenin and Serhiy Shoigu signed documents on the deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. In this way, Russia will place tactical nuclear weapons in a special storage facility in Belarus, and only it will be able to control them. According to Khrenin, the agreement is "an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us."
• Putin then stated that Lukashenko had long raised the issue of deploying Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Putin says that the US has long deployed such weapons in a number of countries, so there is "nothing unusual" in Belarusʼ request.
• On May 29, Lukashenko advised those willing to obtain nuclear weapons to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
• On June 9, Putin informed that the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus will begin immediately after the preparation of facilities for them is completed on July 7-8.
• On June 14, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko announced that his country had begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons. And he assured that some samples are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs that the USA dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
• And on June 16, Putin said that Russia has more nuclear weapons than NATO countries. And part of it — the first tactical nuclear charges — has already been delivered to Belarus.