The US Department of Defense has said there is no indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons, after Moscow announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

"We have seen the reports of the Russian announcement and will continue to monitor this situation. We saw no reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture or any indication that Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons. We remain committed to the collective defense of the NATO alliance," said the written statement of the press service of the Ministry of Defense.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Moscow will deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally Belarus, a country on the threshold of the European Union.

"There is nothing unusual about this: the US has been doing this for decades. They have been deploying tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies for a long time," Putin said in an interview with Russian television.

"We agreed to do the same. We have already helped our Belarusian colleagues and equipped their planes (…) without violating international agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. "Ten planes are ready to use such weapons," Putin said.

"On April 3, we start training the crew, and on July 1, we finish the construction of the special storage for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus," he added.

According to Putin, this decision was prompted by London's willingness to send depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine, which a British official recently discussed. Putin has threatened to resort to the same type of ammunition if Kiev gets it.

"Russia, of course, has something to fight back with." We have, without exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of such grenades. For now, we will not use them," said the Russian president.

Source: Index.hr