Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands while listening to the Ukrainian national anthem on his arrival at the European Parliament on February 09, 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.
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NATO condemned Russia’s “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric Sunday after President Vladimir Putin shared plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Putin announced the deal during an interview on Russian television on Saturday, and he said it will not violate non-proliferation agreements. He said the announcement is “nothing out of the ordinary” and that the U.S. has been doing something similar by stationing weapons in Europe, which a NATO spokesperson called “totally misleading.”
“NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments,” the spokesperson told NBC News. “Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments, most recently suspending its participation in the New START Treaty.”
The New START Treaty establishes a limit on the number of strategic warheads that the U.S. and Russia are able to deploy. Putin announced in February that Russia was going to suspend its participation in the treaty.
The NATO spokesperson added that there have not been changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that have caused NATO to adjust its own.
Following Putin’s announcement Saturday, Ukraine called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sunday that it expects “effective actions” to address Russia’s threats of nuclear aggression.
“Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, and not as a tool of threats and intimidation,” the ministry said in a statement. “The world must unite against the one who threatens the future of human civilization.”
In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there is no indication that…
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