Belarus has begun a surprise inspection of non-strategic nuclear weapons delivery vehicles, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
As part of the inspection, a division of the Iskander tactical missile system and a squadron of Su-25 attack aircraft will be put on alert. The verification is carried out by virtue of a presidential order. The country will test “the full range of activities in planning, preparing and using tactical nuclear warhead attacks.”
The Secretary of State of the Belarusian Security Council, Alexander Wolfowitz, told the press that the inspection coincides with the announcement of exercises in Russia on the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.
Moscow reported on Monday that it has begun preparations to carry out “in the near future” exercises of the missile units of the Southern Military District, with the participation of the country’s aviation and Navy forces. These maneuvers will be carried out by order of the commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces, President Vladimir Putin.
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, declared that the review of the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons in the Army is of a defensive nature. «It is a defense weapon. “No one is going to go on the offensive with that weapon,” said the president, quoted by local media.
The statements were made at an event on the occasion of Victory Day in World War II. Likewise, remembering the Soviet soldiers, Lukashenko said: “We will not give in to provocations. “We are not going to go to war with anyone.”
«Throwing people into the crucible of war is not for me. Our task: if the enemy’s boot steps on our land again, we must inflict unacceptable damage,” he added. With RT