As Belarus’s involvement in the Russian war against Ukraine continues to push Minsk towards an even closer military cooperation with Moscow, Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko has announced that Russia upgraded his country’s jets to enable them to carry tactical atomic weapons.
“Putin and I once said in St. Petersburg that we will refit Belarusian Sukhoi aircraft among other things so that they could carry nuclear weapons,” the Belarusian dictator said, according to state-owned news agency BelTA, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Do you think we talk nonsense? Everything is ready,” he said.
Last June, during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Lukashenko asked Putin to modernize his country’s Sukhoi Su-25s to allow them to carry nuclear weapons. The Belarusian authoritarian leader claimed this would enable the country’s air force to mirror NATO drills. During the same meeting, Russia’s leader said his country will provide nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles to Belarus.
The Belarusian military “has a fairly big number of Su-25 planes. They can be respectively re-equipped,” Putin said at the meeting.
Industry publications estimate Belarus operates 67 Su-25 jets which makes the fighter the most prevalent combat aircraft in the country’s fleet.
In February 2022, Minsk organized a referendum which enabled the authorities to modify the constitution’s article describing Belarus as a “nuclear-free zone” and a “neutral” state, enabling Russia to deploy additional nuclear weapons along NATO’s eastern flank.