‘All Belarusians Are Targets Now Because Of Khrenin’

A Ukrainian diplomat told why the Lukashists decided to change the military doctrine.

Authorities of Belarus decided to change the military doctrine against the background of the possible deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in the country. According to Belarusian Defence Minister Viktar Khrenin, it will include the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

What is behind this: a real threat or propaganda? Charter97.org addressed this question to the diplomat and expert of the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies Alexander Khara about it:

– To begin with, the very idea of amending the Constitution is illegal. Secondly, the consent to the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus is a threat to the Belarusians themselves. If, for example, in previous scenarios, NATO and neighbouring states that are under the "nuclear umbrella" of the Alliance did not consider Belarus as a target for their retaliatory nuclear strikes, all the Belarusians are targets now. Lukashenka simply took the country's residents hostage.

It’s necessary to spread this information.

Thirdly, there are no threats to the security of Belarus in general, even led by the mad Fuhrer of the "Russian world" from Belarus, because the neighbours of Belarus are NATO member states.

NATO is a defensive Alliance of democratic states, which did not cherish any aggressive plans and was not going to fight. It is extremely difficult for democracies to make decisions about attacking someone. We have not seen this on the European continent since 1945.

What Lukashenka is doing now is following the criminal "union state" ideas. It is fiction, but it allows Putin to expand his influence. I understand that Lukashenka needs to ensure the security of his regime and he is ready to surrender the national interests of Belarus to achieve this.

If we are talking about the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, then I do not imagine a situation where Lukashenka, Khrenin or someone else will be allowed to get close to the “nuclear button”. Even though Putin acts very often recklessly, he is certainly not crazy to complicate his life by providing such weapons to Lukashenka.

The fact that the Belarusian regime wants to legalize these weapons and try to register them legally is clear. But Putin will not agree to the fact that the actual control over nuclear weapons was transferred to Lukashenka.

Again, this is a very dangerous idea for the Belarusian people. Dictators, of course, can write anything, but this is a major deviation from the correct policy of reducing the nuclear threat.

– The West does not react in any way to the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus. In your opinion, is their reaction necessary?

– Unfortunately, so far the reaction of the Western world to the decision of Belarus to leave the non-proliferation regime, providing its territory for nuclear weapons, has been extremely mild. I will say that this does not change anything from the point of view of NATO security.

Missiles can be launched absolutely freely both from strategic bombers, which are now firing at Ukraine (but with conventional warheads), and from the Kaliningrad enclave. The Belarusian territory is not of such strategic interest to threaten the European continent anymore. The funds that are on the European continent, including the American ones, are sufficient. A scenario has been developed for possible conflict with the Russian Federation.

The reaction to the fact that the state that renounced nuclear weapons in the 90s returned them to its territory, and also Lukashenka's rhetoric, which is certainly not peaceful, should have been tougher.

I'm not even talking about sanctions, diplomatic and other demarches. The democratic world would have to show that this is unacceptable behaviour.