Ukraine called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday as NATO condemned Russia for making a “dangerous and irresponsible” suggestion that it could soon deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. President Vladimir Putin made the announcement on Saturday.
President Vladimir Putin: “Alexander Lukashenko is right. He says: ‘Listen, we are your closest allies’. Why can the Americans deploy their nuclear weapons on the territories of their allies, train soldiers and pilots how to use this kind of weaponry, if necessary [to use it]? We agreed to do the same.
The director general of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, is due to visit the Russian-occupied Zaporiyia nuclear power plant this week amid fears of a possible nuclear disaster. The plant has had to rely on its emergency diesel generators six times in the past year due to attacks in the region.
On the battlefield, the Russian paramilitary organisation Wagner said it had taken control of a metallurgical plant in the northern Ukrainian city of Bajmut. This comes after Ukraine said its armed forces are still holding out in the ruined eastern town, which has been the scene of one of the fiercest battles fought in the war in months.
