Kyiv on Sunday mentioned it was looking for an emergency assembly of the United Nation’s Security Council to counter Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” after President Vladimir Putin introduced his nation would station tactical nuclear arms in Belarus.

Putin mentioned the deployment was much like strikes from the United States, which shops such weapons in bases throughout Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, an analogy western allies referred to as “misleading”.

With fears of a nuclear conflict rising because the invasion, consultants imagine that any Russian strike would probably contain small-size battlefield weapons, referred to as “tactical” versus “strategic” high-powered long-range nuclear weapons.

“Ukraine expects efficient actions to counteract the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail from the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France,” the Ukrainian international ministry mentioned.

“We demand that an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council be immediately convened for this purpose,” it added.

On Saturday, Putin introduced Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbour and ally Belarus “without violating our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation”.

The Ukrainian international ministry accused Russia of breaching its obligations, and of undermining the “nuclear disarmament architecture and the international security system in general”.

It referred to as on “all members of the international community to convey to the criminal Putin regime the categorical unacceptability of its latest nuclear provocations.”

‘Dangerous and irresponsible’

In the interview broadcast Saturday, Putin mentioned the transfer to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus was “nothing unusual”.

“The United States has been doing this for many years. They have lengthy positioned their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies,” Putin mentioned.

Putin mentioned he spoke to Lukashenko and mentioned “we agreed to do the same.”

Russia will begin coaching crews on April 3 and plans to complete the development of a particular storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons by July 1.

Germany and NATO mentioned the analogy was misleading.

“The comparison made by President Putin to nuclear sharing in NATO is misleading and does not justify the step announced by Russia,” an official in German international workplace informed AFP.

NATO additionally joined the criticism, with spokeswoman Oana Lungescu saying “Russia’s reference to NATO’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments.”

Lungescu additionally blasted Russia’s announcement as “dangerous and irresponsible”.

She nevertheless mentioned the Western allies had not but “seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own.”

Scare ways

Putin has beforehand mentioned nuclear tensions had been “rising” globally however that Moscow wouldn’t deploy first.

Back in February 2022, Belarus allowed the Kremlin to launch its invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

Fears have since risen that Belarus could be a part of its ally’s offensive, however dictator Alexander Lukashenko, a key Putin ally, mentioned he would achieve this “only if attacked”.

On Sunday secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov wrote on Twitter that “the Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.”

He added that the transfer was “a step towards the internal destabilisation of the country”.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak added that “(Putin) admits that he is afraid of losing and all he can do is scare” individuals.

The Russian chief mentioned renewed discussions with Lukashenko on the difficulty had been spurred by a British official’s suggestion depleted uranium weapons be despatched to Ukraine.

Russia has “what it needs to answer” if the West provided Ukraine with such ammunition, he added.

“Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands of such shells. We have not used them yet.”