The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation assured the Kommersant newspaper that the Russian-Belarusian project does not contradict the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and disclosed its essence.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented that the countermeasures taken by Russia and Belarus "are implemented in strict accordance with the obligations under the NPT."

"At this stage, we are talking exclusively about the transfer to the Republic of Belarus of the Iskander-M complexes with dual equipment with missiles in conventional equipment, as well as the provision of some of the Belarusian Su-25 aircraft with the technical ability to carry nuclear weapons.

At the same time, there are no plans to transfer the technologies for converting aircraft into nuclear weapons carriers," the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation,

Maria Zakharova

, told the publication .

Now, as stated in the department's response, "it is not envisaged to physically equip Belarusian systems with nuclear warheads, nor to move such warheads to Belarusian territory", "the creation of facilities for storing nuclear warheads in Belarus is also not envisaged, they will continue to be concentrated in central warehouses within the territory of Russia", and "the training of the Belarusian military will be carried out in Russian training centers according to programs that exclude issues of the exploitation of nuclear warheads".

  • Vladimir Putin, after negotiations with Alexander Lukashenko, said on December 19 that he considers it possible to implement the proposal to train Belarusian combat aircraft crews, which are re-equipped for the possible use of ammunition with a special combat unit.

Lukashenka then concluded:

"We prepared the planes, it turned out that we have had such planes since Soviet times.

We tested them in Russia, now we, together with the Russians, are training crews capable of flying these planes, which carry specific munitions."

  • On June 25, Lukashenka asked Putin to help re-equip Belarusian military aircraft so that they could carry nuclear warheads.

    At that meeting with Putin, Lukashenka said that he was very worried about the training flights of the US and NATA planes, which are preparing to carry nuclear warheads and nuclear charges.

  • On August 26, Lukashenka announced that the re-equipment of Belarusian aircraft to carry nuclear weapons has been completed.