BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 NATO sees no sign that Russia has changed its nuclear posture, the head of the military alliance said Thursday, after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that Belarus has already received some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview on state television on Tuesday, Lukashenko brashly warned that he wouldn\u2019t hesitate to order their use if Belarus faced an act of aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the weapons will be deployed to Belarus next month and will remain under Moscow\u2019s exclusive control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are, of course, closely monitoring what Russia is doing. So far, we haven\u2019t seen any changes in the nuclear posture that requires any changes in our posture,\u201d Stoltenberg told reporters before chairing a meeting of NATO defense ministers at the alliance\u2019s headquarters in Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NATO\u2019s secretive nuclear defense planning group is set to meet on Friday. The meeting has long been planned and is not a reaction to recent developments, but the alliance is concerned about Putin\u2019s threats and his decisions to pull Russia out of important arms limitation treaties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s nuclear rhetoric and messaging is reckless and dangerous,\u201d Stoltenberg said. \u201cRussia must know that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.\u201d He noted that \u201cRussia has invested heavily in new modern nuclear capabilities and also deployed more nuclear capabilities, including close to NATO borders, for instance, in the high north.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year, Putin announced the planned deployment of short-range nuclear weapons to Moscow\u2019s neighbor and ally Belarus in a move widely seen as a warning to the West as it stepped up military support for Ukraine. Russia is also using Belarus as a staging base for attacks in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a meeting with Lukashenko on Friday, Putin said work on building facilities for the weapons would be completed by July 7-8, and they would be moved to Belarusian territory quickly after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are gathering for a summit on July 11-12 in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Belarus border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NATO doubts President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims that Belarus has already received some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":108527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,12,25,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3391],"class_list":["post-71063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MMR4EROGMFDSNPNMJKG25P5D7A","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2023\/06\/15\/nato-sees-no-change-in-russia-nuclear-posture-despite-belarus-claims\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n