MINSK. June 14 (Interfax) - One call to Russian President Vladimir Putin would be enough for Belarus to use Russian tactical nuclear weapons stored there, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said.
"I often hear that these are Russian weapons. They won't be used [by Belarus] without Russia. Listen, if there is a war, I will hardly start looking around," Lukashenko said in an interview with presenter Olga Skabeyeva from Rossiya 1 television channel (VGTRK) on Tuesday. An abstract of the interview was released on the First Man's Pool Telegram channel close to the Belarusian presidential administration.
"No, the phone will be picked up. [...] No matter where he [Putin] is, he will pick up the phone. And I will pick up if he calls. Any time. [...] Is it hard to coordinate?" Lukashenko said.
"This is not a problem. We have agreed already," he said.
Belarus has accepted Russian nuclear weapons with capacity thrice exceeding that of the nuclear weapons used by the United States in Japan at the end of WWII, Lukashenko said.
"The bomb is thrice more powerful than [U.S. bombs dropped on] Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 80,000 people died instantly, in addition to 250,000 [who died later]. [...] This bomb is thrice more powerful. I do not know, a million might die right away. God forbid this weapon is used," he said.
As to whether the weapon has been delivered, Lukashenko said, "Not all of it. We are doing it little by little."
"As soon as we bring in everything, it will be dispersed," he said.
"We had numerous [nuclear weapon storage sites in the Soviet era]. We have restored five to six of them. More will be restored. We will disperse them. We will not store everything in one place," Lukashenko said.