Today something happened that should never have happened. We have learned that nuclear weapons will be deployed in the territory of Belarus. Exactly now, when the cruelest war since the Second World War is happening in Europe, when the international political situation is heated to the limit, Vladimir Putin announced his decision to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus. This is his «gift» to Belarusians on the Freedom Day.

We were terrified to know that tactical nuclear weapons belonging to Russia will have been deployed in Belarus in special storage facilities by July 1, 2023. The Russians are not only going to deploy the nuclear arms in our country, by also to instruct the Belarusian military how to handle and use them.

I would say it the most terrifying news since the beginning of war in the February of the last year. I cannot even say what is worse: if Belarus joins the war with its non-nuclear forces, or when Belarus formally does not enter the war, but becomes a nuclear weapons deployment site.

In the second case, Belarus will become both a participant and a hostage of the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail. A participant in the same way as when it became a co-aggressor in Russia’s war against Ukraine, as it is clear that it’s impossible to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus without Lukashenka’s consent.

A hostage, because such decision is a taboo for a non-nuclear nation, it’s a violation of all international agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. In the conditions of the current confrontation between the East and the West, it is making Belarus a target of a pre-emptive strike. I believe that strike will not be made by Ukraine. The confrontation here is taking another level: not regional, but global.

Unfortunately, I do not know where exactly in Belarus it is planned to establish nuclear weapons storage facilities. However, the local residents should relocate as quickly as possible from there. As it is highly probable, that NATO countries are not going to wait while Putin will bring his rockets there.

One last thing. The consent of Aliaksandr Lukashenka to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus is the evidence of just one thing: the sovereignty of Belarus has become vanishingly thin. Whatever Lukashenka is offering Putin in regard to deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, such issues are not decided in Minsk. Only Moscow is capable to make such a decision. The easiness of how it has been foisted on Minsk shows: our country has almost lost its sovereignty.

The black times have arrived. Nevertheless, we most emphatically protest against deployment of nuclear weapons in the territory of Belarus! Because we want to live! We want our loved ones to live! We want all people in Belarus to live! Nuclear weapons are death! Any weapon is created to be used, and today the threat is high as never before.

Olga Karatch

Our House

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