The Foreign Ministry accused the United States of duplicity because of nuclear weapons in Europe

American B-52H bomber. File photoMOSCOW, February 7The West, instead of fearing a hypothetical threat of deploying Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, would rather think about the real danger of deploying US nuclear weapons in Europe, Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Yermakov said in an interview with RIA Novosti. Earlier in the State Department The United States expressed the assumption that a change in the Belarusian constitution could lead to the deployment of Russian nuclear forces on the territory of the country, which would allegedly pose a threat to the security of Europe. the location on the territory of a number of NATO countries of American nuclear weapons capable of hitting targets on Russian territory,» Yermakov said in response to a request for comment on the State Department's statements. According to him, the participation of non-nuclear European countries in NATO's «joint nuclear missions» «directly contradicts their bases new obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.» «We categorically disagree with such duplicity of the Western countries,» a high-ranking Russian diplomat emphasized.The State Department appreciated Russia's calls to withdraw nuclear weapons from NATO countries that Minsk is ready to host such weapons if NATO takes a similar step in Poland, the Belarusian president said in an interview with RIA Novosti in late November. As Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted, this Lukashenka's statement should be taken as a warning to the West. In turn, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, pointed out that the deployment of various types of weapons near the country's borders would entail actions to balance the situation. After the collapse of the USSR, dozens of charges for Topol strategic intercontinental missiles and more than a thousand tactical nuclear warheads remained on Belarusian territory. Their withdrawal was the result of the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons by Minsk. Lukashenka said in an interview with RIA Novosti that all but one of the launch sites for intercontinental ballistic missiles in the republic have been preserved and are ready for use.Zelensky responded to the idea of ​​placing Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus