After Vladimir Putin's decision to post tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Nato has denounced Russia's "dangerous" and "irresponsible" language.

 After Vladimir Putin's decision to post tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Nato has denounced Russia's "dangerous" and "irresponsible" languagE:

The organisation stated that it is "closely monitoring" the situation and that the action would not cause it to alter its own nuclear policy.

The Pentagon asserted that it did not think Russia was prepared to deploy nuclear weapons.

Belarus has a lengthy border with Ukraine, as well as with NATO members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

In response to the possible threat posed by President Putin's announcement on Saturday, Ukraine has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a staunch ally of the Kremlin who supported its invasion, warned that Moscow would not be handing over control of its armed forces to Minsk.

- a representative of Ukraine - had long brought up the subject.

President Putin has refuted the accusation, contrasting it with the US stationing its weapons in Europe, which the Ukraine claims violates nuclear non-proliferation accords.

The mention to nuclear sharing by Russia, though, was deemed "misleading" by Nato on Sunday.

Oana Lungescu, a spokesperson for NATO, said that its members "operate in complete compliance of their international obligations."

The military alliance also charged Russia with repeatedly failing to uphold its own commitments to arms control, citing the nation's decision to renege on its 2010 commitment to the New START Treaty, which places a cap on the number of nuclear warheads each country could possess and grants each country the right to inspect the other's arsenal.

Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, requested Belarus to withdraw from the agreement with Putin has issued a warning that if the plan is carried out, the nation may be subject to more penalties.

On Twitter, he stated that Belarus still has the option to halt it.

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Without more weapons, there can be no Ukraine offensive, Zelensky

The Russian government is holding Belarus captive with nuclear weapons, according to a top security advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Twitter, Oleksiy Danilov predicted that Belarusian anti-Russian sentiment would increase and referred to Russia's plans as a "move towards internal destabilisation."

Russian nuclear weapons deployment in Belarus "grossly opposes the desire of the Belarusian people," according to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who also warned that it may make Belarus a target for retaliation strikes.

However, Yuriy Sak, a consultant to The deployment in Belarus would not influence the outcome of the war, the Ukrainian ministry of defence told the BBC, adding that Ukraine was accustomed to Russian nuclear threats.

"They cannot win this war because it is unwinnable and unsustainable for them, and they cannot defeat Ukraine because we have lived under the constant danger of a potential nuclear attack since the first day of the massive invasion," he stated.

While Russia has been stationing military hardware in Belarus since the conflict's outbreak in 2022, Mr. Sak claimed that the country's actions are not novel.

The action was referred to as "scare tactics" by Mykhailo Podolyak, another important adviser to President Zelensky, who also criticised the Russian president for being "too predictable."

American analysts The Institute for War, a think tank, stated that after the statement, there was still a "very low risk" of a nuclear conflict.

President Putin announced in his presentation on Saturday that Belarus has already received a modest number of Iskander tactical missile systems, which can be used to launch nuclear bombs.

Russia will be hosting nuclear weapons outside of its borders for the first time since the middle of the 1990s.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, weapons were sent to four newly independent states: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The transfer of all warheads to Russia was completed in 1996.

In order to operate the weapons, Russia will begin training crews the following week. It will be finished building a facility in Belarus for storing tactical nuclear weapons.President Putin stated that by July 1.

The announcement comes shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow, during which Russia and China released a joint statement stating that "all nuclear powers must not deploy their nuclear weapons beyond their national territories, and they must withdraw all nuclear weapons deployed abroad."