Belarus has included a clause on the use of tactical nuclear weapons in its new military doctrine, likely to reflect Russia's deployment of this type of weapon in the country in 2023.
Why did Belarus introduce nuclear weapons into the military doctrine
It is emphasised that the draft of the new military doctrine of Belarus foreces the use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons for the first time.
ISW analysts note that the specifics of how the new doctrine applies to tactical nuclear weapons are still unclear. At the same time, experts have found no signs that Russia or Belarus are seeking nuclear escalation, and continue to believe that the use of nuclear weapons by Russia or Belarus remains unlikely to occure.
Transfer of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus
Yesterday, January 16, the Minister of Defence of Belarus, Viktor Khrenin, said that the country wants to update its military doctrine for the first time in eight years. Now it must include the use of nuclear weapons.
We will remind, at the end of May 2023, the defence ministers of Russia and Belarus agreed on the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of the Republic of Belarus.
The aggressor country also handed over the Iskander-M complexes capable of launching nuclear-tipped missiles to the Belarusian military.
At the end of December 2023, dictator Oleksandr Lukashenko announced that Belarus had already received all the nuclear weapons that Russia had promised to hand over.
