The US Department of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has "no reason to doubt" that Russia moved the first batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
CNN writes about this with reference to sources in the DIA.
In June, Russian dictator Putin said that "the first [Russian] nuclear warheads were delivered to the territory of Belarus," and added that they were placed there for "deterrence."
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has approximately 4,477 deployed and standby nuclear warheads, including nearly 1,900 tactical nuclear weapons. It is currently unknown how much of this arsenal Putin plans to move, and European and American officials have not yet publicly confirmed that Russian nuclear weapons are indeed in Belarus.
At the same time, senior US intelligence officials told a small group of reporters that analysts had "no reason to doubt" Putinʼs claims about the arms transfer.
Officials did not begin to tell why they thought so. They acknowledged that it is difficult for US intelligence to track these weapons, even with the help of satellite images.
Earlier, representatives of the United States and the West told CNN that Belarus has probably not completed the modernization of storage facilities for the placement of tactical nuclear weapons. However, according to other sources, there are various Soviet-era objects in Belarus where it can be placed.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said last week that the UK had "seen signs of this progressing" in arms transfers and noted that Putin "doesnʼt always lie". However, Wallace did not specify what exactly the signs are.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US expects Russia to “uphold its nonproliferation obligations”.
"I will say that we continue to actively monitor reports of the Russia-Belarus arrangement to ensure that Russia maintains control of its weapons in the event of any deployment to Belarus and upholds its obligations under the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," he said at a July 11 briefing.
The self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Oleksandr Lukashenko, stated in June that in the event of aggression, he would "without hesitation" use Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed on Belarusian soil. However, senior officials do not believe that Lukashenko will have control over the arsenal.
Putin said last month that the remaining tactical nuclear weapons that Russia plans to transfer would be transferred to Belarus "by the end of the summer or the end of the year."
- On May 25, the defense ministers of Belarus and Russia, Viktor Khrenin and Serhiy Shoigu, signed documents on the placement of non-strategic nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. So, Russia will place tactical nuclear weapons in a special storage facility in Belarus, and only it will be able to control them.
- 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.
- On June 20, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that preparations for the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons are underway in Belarus, and the warheads have not yet been transported.
- Poland is ready to join the nuclear exchange program among NATO countries as soon as possible against the background of the fact that Russia is going to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.