According to Putin, training on weapons in Belarus should begin in April, and the depots for the nuclear missiles should be ready on July 1. In Belarus, ruler Alexander Lukashenko, who is dependent on Putin, had called for the weapons to be stationed even before the war. Belarus would thus receive nuclear missiles for the first time since the 1990s after the voluntary surrender of its nuclear weapons following the end of the Soviet Union.
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However, from the point of view of the Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Russian actions could lead to catastrophe. Putin’s plan is an “extremely dangerous escalation,” warned the Nobel Prize-winning organization in Geneva. Bulgaria’s Vice President Ilijana Jotova called for negotiations between the warring parties Russia and Ukraine. The situation is becoming “more and more dangerous and frightening,” said Jotowa in Sofia.