RUSSIA and Belarus signed a deal today to formalise the deployment of Moscow’s nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, although control of the weapons remains with the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of the shorter-range weapons in Belarus earlier this year in a move widely seen as a warning to the West as it stepped up military support for Ukraine.

It is unclear how many nuclear weapons would be stationed in the country. The US believes Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, which include bombs that can be carried by aircraft, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery rounds.

Tactical nuclear weapons are supposedly intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield. They have a relatively short range and a much lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of obliterating whole cities.

Both Russian and Belarusian officials framed the step as driven by hostility from the West.

“Deployment of strategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us,” Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said in Minsk at a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.

“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” Mr Shoigu said.

President Putin has argued that by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia was following the lead of the United States, noting that the US has nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Moscow proposed a mutual agreement not to station nuclear weapons in third countries to the US late in 2021, but Washington refused to consider it.

Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for invading neighbouring Ukraine in February last year.