Ukraine-Russia war: Kyiv calls for emergency UN meeting as Putin plans to station nukes in Belarus
Kyiv has called for emergency measures after Vladimir Putin announced tactical nuclear weapons will be stationed in Belarus.
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Kyiv said it was seeking an emergency meeting of the United Nation’s Security Council to counter Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” after President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Mr Putin said the move was similar to the United States transferring weapons onto the territory of its allies, an analogy Germany called “misleading”.
“Ukraine expects effective actions to counteract the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail from the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.
“We demand that an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council be immediately convened for this purpose,” it added.
On Saturday, Mr Putin announced Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbour and ally Belarus “without violating our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation”.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry accused Russia of breaching its obligations, and of undermining the “nuclear disarmament architecture and the international security system in general”.
It called on “all members of the international community to convey to the criminal Putin regime the categorical unacceptability of its latest nuclear provocations.”
Strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power in Belarus for almost 30 years, is a key Putin ally.
Back in February 2022, Minsk allowed the Kremlin to launch its invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory.
Fears have since risen that Belarus may join its ally’s offensive, but Lukashenko said he would do so “only if attacked”.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, on Sunday wrote on Twitter that “the Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.”
He added that the move was “a step towards the internal destabilisation of the country”.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak added that “(Putin) admits that he is afraid of losing and all he can do is scare” people.
In an interview broadcast on Saturday, Mr Putin said the move to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus was “nothing unusual”.
“The United States has been doing this for decades. They have long placed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies,” Mr Putin said.
Russia will start training crews on April 3 and plans to finish the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons by July 1.
The Russian leader said renewed discussions with Lukashenko on the issue were spurred by a British official’s suggestion to send depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine.
Russia will respond if the West supplied Ukraine with such ammunition, he added.
“Russia of course has what it needs to answer. Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands of such shells. We have not used them yet.”
He said the weapons “can be classified as the most harmful and hazardous for humans … and also for the environment”.
Depleted uranium munitions are highly effective at piercing armour plate, but their use is controversial.
The metal is toxic for the soldiers who use the weapons and for civilians in areas where they are fired.
VIRAL VIDEO CLAIMS PUTIN USES BODY DOUBLES
A new viral video has added further fuel to conspiracy theories that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using body doubles for high-risk public outings — including on the ground in war-torn Ukraine.
The video, which has been shared widely over the past week, further inflames speculation that Putin is playing it safe by using as many as three different body doubles to dodge any potential danger, according to a report by the Daily Mail.
“Who is ruling Russia?’ the video asks.
“A specialist long ago noticed the differences between the Russian president’s body doubles,” the video says in Russian.
“A ledge on Putin’s earlobe constantly changes. As does a small mole on his face.
“One of the Putins has straight wrinkles on his face, the other has small and interrupted [wrinkles],” the video claims. “This is impossible even if he had Botox injections.”
The bizarre theory gathered momentum earlier this week when Ukrainian government advisor Anton Gerashenchenko suggested that photos of Putin during an impromptu visit to the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Sevastopol appeared to be different men to the Russian leader.
Mr Gerashechenko, an advisor to the internal affairs minister in the war-torn country, highlighted differences in the neck and chin area in men identified as Putin.
Images of the Russian leader taken in Moscow on February 21 seem to show him with a thinner neck compared to the jowls of the men pictured in Ukraine last weekend.
“Evidently the weakest double was sent to Mariupol,” the video posted by the Daily Mail claims. “They forgot to put in his jaw.”
Putin’s unexpected visit to Ukraine was his first appearance in the Russian-occupied territory since Moscow launched an invasion of the country last year.
Rumours that he uses look-alikes have circulated for years but have never been proven.
After Putin’s visit to Ukraine over the weekend, the country’s military intelligence rep Andriy Yusov quipped that “a man that looks like Putin visited Mariupol”.
ARRESTING PUTIN WOULD BE ‘DECLARATION OF WAR’
Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has warned that attempts to arrest Vladimir Putin abroad after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant against him would be seen by Moscow as a “declaration of war”.
Mr Medvedev, who served as president between 2008 and 2012, has made increasingly hawkish speeches since Putin sent troops to Ukraine, repeatedly issuing nuclear threats.
Late on Wednesday (local time), he said Russian weapons would hit a country if it arrested Putin.
The ICC, based in The Hague, last week announced an arrest warrant for the Russian leader, accused of deporting Ukrainian children.
“Let’s imagine — it’s clear that this is a situation that will never happen — but nevertheless let’s imagine it does,” the Putin ally said.
“The current head of a nuclear state arrives on the territory of, say, Germany, and is arrested. What is this? A declaration of war against the Russian Federation.”
Mr Medvedev said that if this happened “all of our means, rockets and others, will fly on the Bundestag, in the Chancellor’s Office and so on.”
The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council said the ICC’s decision would make dire relations with the West plunge further.
His comments came two days after Russia opened a criminal investigation into ICC prosecutor Karim Khan and several other ICC judges, saying their decision was “unlawful”.
The Hague-based court had also issued a warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights.
On Wednesday, the ICC’s legislative body said it regretted “threats” against the tribunal over its warrant.
“The presidency of the assembly regrets these attempts to hinder international efforts to ensure accountability for acts that are prohibited under general international law,” it said in a statement.
STUNNING MOMENT US BOMBED FLANKED BY NATO JETS
A stunning video has captured the moment US B-52 bombers carried a mission over Europe with three other NATO allies in a show of strength by the military alliance.
Jets from Italy, Spain and Romania flanked the bombers in a V-formation in the footage taken from one of the B-52s and released by NATO.
“Get a cockpit view of the US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers working with NATO allies during a recent mission over Europe,” the alliance said.
🇵🇱 MiG 29s & F16s, 🇳🇱F-35s & 🇫🇷 Rafales demonstrate readiness & assurance on #NATO’s Eastern flank in joint air operations
— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) March 22, 2023
Allied jets integrated 4th & 5th gen capabilities practising combined drills that ensure the security of #NATO air space
Read more https://t.co/nBpw7lPcLN pic.twitter.com/PwN4UiMCDg
“The B-52s are training with Allied Air Forces during their BTF (Bomber Task Force) mission strengthening our Euro-Atlantic partnership.”
The display of strength comes after a Russian fighter jet intercepted two B-52 strategic bombers less than a week after an unprecedented high altitude collision with a US Reaper drone.
Get a cockpit view of the @usairforce 🇺🇸B-52 Stratofortress bombers working with @NATO Allies 🇷🇴🇮🇹🇪🇸 during a recent mission over Europe
— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) March 21, 2023
The B-52s are training with Allied Air Forces during their BTF mission strengthening our Euro-Atlantic partnership#StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/i1JknUUFqt
Russia’s defence ministry said a Su-35 jet was scrambled when two US Air Force bombers flew “in the direction” of its border on the Baltic Sea.
“Two air targets flying in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation” were detected by radar, it said in a statement on Telegram.
“After the foreign military aircraft moved away from the Russian Federation state border, the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield.”
The US did not confirm the encounter, which comes after the release of stunning video footage showing a Russian jet dropping fuel on an American unmanned aerial vehicle.
Footage purported to be taken from the Su-35 jet showed one of the two flying fortresses over international waters.
The National Defense Center of the Russian Federation said: “The flight of the Russian fighter was carried out in strict accordance with the international rules for the use of airspace.
“Violations of the state border of the Russian Federation are not allowed.”
PUTIN ROLLS OUT RED CARPET
Russia has pulled out all the stops for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, welcoming him to the Kremlin with a red carpet, military band and a delegation of senior Russian officials including Vladimir Putin, ahead of formal talks with the president.
Mr Xi arrived on Tuesday at the Grand Kremlin Palace, where he climbed the main staircase past a guard of honour before he entered the main hall from one side and Mr Putin entered from the other. The pair then walked down the red carpet towards each other and met beside large flags of their countries. After their national anthems were played, the two delegations started their talks, with the Ukraine conflict a closely-watched matter on the agenda as both nations seek allies to counteract Western power.
The Chinese leader’s Moscow visit has been viewed as a boost for Mr Putin, who is under Western sanctions and subject to an International Criminal Court warrant over accusations of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
The Kremlin has said the two leaders would discuss proposals put forward by China to end more than a year of fighting in Ukraine, and that the talks were likely to end with Mr Xi and Mr Putin signing a raft of agreements.
“China should not provide lethal aid to Russia,” NATO’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg warned, as Mr Xi and Mr Putin were locked in talks at the Kremlin.
The NATO chief told reporters in Brussels that “we haven’t seen any proof” of China delivering lethal weapons but there were some signs of it being “a request from Russia”.
He said that China would be supporting “an illegal war” if it followed through.
Mr Xi earlier met with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and hailed Russia and China as “great neighbouring powers” on the second day of his visit to Russia.
Beijing and Moscow’s trade ties have boomed since Russia’s Ukraine campaign, linking the nations more closely and raising worries in Western capital over how far the ties will go.
Mr Xi, who said he had invited Mr Putin to visit China this year, said China’s government would “continue to prioritise the all-round strategic partnership between China and Russia”.
“We are great neighbouring powers,” he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying during a meeting with Mishustin.
Mr Xi’s trip coincides with a surprise visit to Kyiv by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who visited Bucha, a town where Russian forces were accused of committing atrocities during their occupation last year.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry described the trip as “historic” and called it “a sign of solidarity and strong co-operation between (Ukraine and Japan)”.
– with AFP
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