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Russia to station tactical nuclear weapons near Belarus’s western border
Russian tactical nuclear weapons will be moved close to Belarus’ borders with its Nato neighbours, the Russian ambassador to Belarus has said amid tensions between Russia and the west over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Associated Press reports:
Ambassador Boris Gryzlov’s comment followed Russian president Vladimir Putin’s recent statement about plans to station tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Russia’s neighbour and ally. The announcement marked another attempt by the Russian leader to dangle the nuclear threat to discourage the west from supporting Ukraine.
Putin has said that construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be complete by 1 July and added that Russia has helped modernise Belarusian warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
The two neighbours have an agreement envisioning close economic, political and military ties. Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for invading Ukraine and has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.
Gryzlov, speaking in remarks broadcast late Sunday by Belarusian state television, said the Russian nuclear weapons will be “moved up close to the western border of our union state” but did not give any precise location.
“It will expand our defence capability, and it will be done regardless of all the noise in Europe and the United States,” he said in a reference to western criticism of Putin’s decision.
Belarus shares a 1,250-kilometre border with Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Tactical nuclear weapons, which are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield, have a relatively short range and a much lower yield compared with nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of obliterating whole cities.
The deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus would put them closer to potential targets in Ukraine and Nato members in Eastern and Central Europe.
Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that some of Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed to Belarus along with part of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal.
Key events
In case you missed it, the Guardian reporters Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer and Tom Phillips have the story of a pair of highly unusual Russian spies who left emotional devastation in their wake when they fled back to Russia earlier this year, amid fears they were about to be unmasked.
Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich managed 3D printing companies in Brazil, which among other things produced novelty resin sculptures for the Brazilian military and sausage dog key chains. His alleged wife, Irina Romanova, posed as a Greek-Mexican photographer named Maria Tsalla and ran a knitting supplies shop in Athens.
Here’s an excerpt:
Illegals often work in pairs as married couples, but the case of Campos Wittich and Tsalla is the first alleged example of two halves of an illegal couple working in separate countries with separate lives.
“We have very little doubt that they were married,” said the Greek official, adding that it was an unusual case. He claimed that the pair had engineered meetings in Greece, Cyprus and France in recent times, possibly romantic encounters mixed with espionage catch-ups.
Interviews in Greece and Brazil suggest both halves of the couple left emotional devastation in the wake of their hurried departures. Both had long-term romantic partners in their cover identities, who had no suspicion they were involved with Russian spies.
Campos Wittich lived for at least two years in Rio with his Brazilian girlfriend, who coordinated the social media search for him when he disappeared. She is a veterinarian who works for the country’s ministry of agriculture.
Read on here:
Russia plans to form a division of special-purpose submarines that will carry Poseidon nuclear-capable torpedoes as part of the country’s Pacific Fleet by the end of 2024 or first half of 2025, Russia’s Tass news agency has reported.
Russia said in January that it had produced the first set of the Poseidon torpedoes, four years after president Vladimir Putin announced the fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon, confirming it would have its own nuclear power supply, according to Reuters.
In late March, Russia said that the coastal infrastructure for the submarines that would carry the Poseidon torpedoes will be finished on the Kamchatka Peninsula, where Russia’s Pacific Fleet’s ballistic nuclear missile submarine base is located.
“The decision to form a division of special-purpose nuclear submarines in Kamchatka has been made,” TASS cited an unidentified defence source as saying. “We are talking about December 2024 or the first half of 2025.”
There are few confirmed details about the Poseidon in the public domain, but military analysts say it is essentially a cross between a torpedo and a drone which can be launched from a nuclear submarine.
Russia’s security forces are confiscating the passports of senior officials and state company executives due to paranoia over potential leaks and defections, the Financial Times is reporting.
Citing several people familiar with the matter, the paper’s Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon writes in a paywalled report:
The increased pressure reflects deep suspicion in the Kremlin and FSB, the KGB’s successor agency, about the loyalty of Russia’s civilian elite, many of whom privately oppose the war in Ukraine and are chafing over its impact on their lifestyles.
A spokesperson for Putin confirmed that Russia had tightened its restrictions on foreign travel for some people workers in “sensitive” areas.
The assassination of prominent pro-war Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, may reveal further fractures within the Kremlin and its inner circle, the US-based Institute for the Study of War has written in its daily analysis.
The Russian Foreign Ministry blamed Kyiv for the attack – which took place in a St Petersburg cafe reportedly belonging to Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin – and praised Russian military bloggers for their war coverage, “seemingly ignoring the fact that Fomin and other milbloggers routinely criticize the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Foreign Ministry,” ISW analysts wrote.
They also noted that Prigozhin stated on 2 April that he would not “blame the Kyiv regime” for the deaths of Fomin and Russian ultranationalist figure Daria Dugina, who was assassinated in August, suggesting that Ukrainian agents were not in fact responsible.
The ISW continued:
Fomin’s assassination at Prigozhin’s bar is likely part of a larger pattern of escalating Russian internal conflicts involving Prigozhin and Wagner. Fomin had attended another event earlier in the day without incident, so it appears that the attack was deliberately staged in a space owned by Prigozhin.
Advisor to Ukrainian Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak stated that Fomin’s death was a result of antifighting and political competition among Russian actors. Some Russian political analysts also speculated that Prigozhin was supposed to attend Fomin’s event, although there is no confirmation of that speculation.
Fomin’s assassination may have been intended as a warning to Prigozhin, who has been increasingly questioning core Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine and even obliquely signaling an interest in the Russian presidency, whether in competition with Putin or as his successor.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the fighting in Bakhmut, the heavily fought over city in Ukraine’s Donbas region, is “especially hot”.
“I am grateful to our warriors who are fighting near Avdiivka, Maryinka, near Bakhmut… Especially Bakhmut! It’s especially hot there today!” he said in his nightly address without elaborating further.
His comments came as Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said his troops had raised a Russian flag on the city’s administrative building, according to Reuters.
However there was no indication from Ukrainian officials that Bakhmut had fallen into Russian hands and Prigozhin has previously made claims about Wagner’s military progress in the city that were premature.
Russian forces have for months been trying to encircle and capture Bakhmut, a town of 70,000 before the Russian invasion launched over a year ago.
Prigozhin, in an audio message posted on his press service’s Telegram account, said:
From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken. The enemy is concentrated in the western parts.”
A senior Ukrainian official had earlier described the situation around the town as “tense,” with the military command carefully considering every move.
Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces were continuing to defend their positions, with Russian forces paying scant attention to their losses as they mounted attacks.
The situation in Bakhmut remains tense,” Maliar said on Telegram. “But every military decision and every step is weighed carefully … We respond to the prevailing situation appropriately, taking into account all circumstances, tasks and the principle of military feasibility.”
Zelenskiy and military commanders agreed last month to maintain the defence of Bakhmut amid public debate over whether it was best to remain or adopt other defensive positions.
Russia to station tactical nuclear weapons near Belarus’s western border
Russian tactical nuclear weapons will be moved close to Belarus’ borders with its Nato neighbours, the Russian ambassador to Belarus has said amid tensions between Russia and the west over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Associated Press reports:
Ambassador Boris Gryzlov’s comment followed Russian president Vladimir Putin’s recent statement about plans to station tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Russia’s neighbour and ally. The announcement marked another attempt by the Russian leader to dangle the nuclear threat to discourage the west from supporting Ukraine.
Putin has said that construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be complete by 1 July and added that Russia has helped modernise Belarusian warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
The two neighbours have an agreement envisioning close economic, political and military ties. Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for invading Ukraine and has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.
Gryzlov, speaking in remarks broadcast late Sunday by Belarusian state television, said the Russian nuclear weapons will be “moved up close to the western border of our union state” but did not give any precise location.
“It will expand our defence capability, and it will be done regardless of all the noise in Europe and the United States,” he said in a reference to western criticism of Putin’s decision.
Belarus shares a 1,250-kilometre border with Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Tactical nuclear weapons, which are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield, have a relatively short range and a much lower yield compared with nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of obliterating whole cities.
The deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus would put them closer to potential targets in Ukraine and Nato members in Eastern and Central Europe.
Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that some of Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed to Belarus along with part of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Helen Livingstone and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments as they happen.
Our top story this morning:
Russia’s ambassador to Belarus says Moscow will deploy tactical nuclear weapons close to Belarus’s border with Nato neighbours Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The comment follows Russian president Vladimir Putin’s recent statement about plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The weapons “will be moved to the western border of our union state and will increase the possibilities to ensure security”, Boris Gryzlov told Belarusian state television. “This will be done despite the noise in Europe and the United States.”
We’ll have more on this stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
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Prominent pro-war Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky has been killed in a blast at a cafe in central St Petersburg, Russia’s interior ministry has said. Russian media said a bomb was hidden in a statue presented to Tatarsky in a box as a gift. Another 30 people were injured.
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Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has called for Russia to free the detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich in a rare phone call with his Moscow counterpart. The American’s plea was rejected by Sergei Lavrov, who responded by saying that US officials and media outlets must “not make a fuss” or try to politicise the plight of the Wall Street Journal reporter.
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More than three dozen editors of news organisations from across the world have signed a letter condemning Gershkovich’s detention. “Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalized and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law,” says the letter.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the heavily fought over city of Bakhmut is “especially hot” right now. The comment, in his regular evening address, came as the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that his forces had raised the Russian flag over Bakhmut’s administration building. Prigozhin has issued some premature success claims before and the Guardian could not verify his claim.
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Saudi Arabia and other Opec+ oil producers including Russia have announced further cuts in their production amounting to around 1.16 million barrels per day in a surprise move that analysts said would cause an immediate rise in prices.
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Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties in the war in Ukraine but a “significant number” of these are due to “non-combat causes”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. “Other leading causes of non-combat casualties likely include poor weapon handing drills, road traffic accidents and climatic injuries such as hypothermia,” it said.
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Russia plans to form a division of special-purpose submarines that will carry Poseidon nuclear-capable torpedoes as part of the country’s Pacific Fleet by the end of 2024 or first half of 2025, Russia’s Tass news agency has reported.
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