The announcement from Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the deployment of tactical nuclear arms in Belarus is yet another attempt to intimidate the West, so that they reduce support for Ukraine, said ex-Director of Latvia’s Constitutional Protection Bureau Jānis Kažociņš in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds.
He explained that Russian armed forces have a tough time, because the intended three-day war in Ukraine has become too long and the successes achieved so far are few and weak. This is why Putin has decided to return to a tactic that would intimidate the West the most and force them to reduce direct support for Ukraine. This method is waving nuclear arms around.
«In this case it is clear they [Russians] could have brought nuclear arms to Belarus sooner if they considered it necessary.
But this wasn’t done, but now they loudly announce they will,» comments Kažociņš.
As previously reported, Putin announced during an interview last week that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear arms in Belarus.
The US National Security Council mentioned that the Washington does not believe Russia is getting ready to use nuclear arms.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has requested an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continuing fore more than a year, there are more and more concerns about the possible use of nuclear arms.
Also read: Zelensky: Russia uses Zaporizhzhia NPP for blackmail