MINSK. Sept 27 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has expressed a readiness to use nuclear weapons in case of a NATO attack and thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for adjusting the national nuclear doctrine.
"As soon as they attack us, [...] we will use nuclear weapons. Russia will also step in for us," the BelTA state-run news agency cited Lukashenko as telling students of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio-Electronics.
"The Americans and the Poles have lined up along the border, especially the Polish one," he said.
Lukashenko reminded the students that he said on September 17 at a patriotic forum that an attack on Belarus would be viewed as the beginning of the third world war.
"I appreciate what Putin said recently, when adjusting the nuclear doctrine, we would use nuclear weapons in case of an attack on Russia and Belarus. He thus confirmed my words," Lukashenko said.