Belarus escalated nuclear tensions by accepting Russian warheads while warning the world is on the brink of nuclear apocalypse, prompting a muscular NATO response.
Belarus has warned that the world is “less than one and a half minutes to midnight” on the Doomsday Clock as it takes delivery of Russian nuclear warheads capable of striking London within eight minutes. Speaking at the UN, Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov declared the world was “the closest ever” to nuclear catastrophe, blaming Western rearmament for escalating tensions. He claimed Belarus had been “forced to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons to guarantee its security,” adding that feared Oreshnik ballistic missiles were being stationed on its soil.
President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed the weapons were en route. “It’s on its way. Everything will be fine,” he said. Ryzhenkov warned Belarus now possessed arms of “monstrous destructive power,” accusing Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia of laying mines along its borders.
NATO responded with a major show of force in the North Sea, deploying the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group with fighter jets and 10,000 personnel in its Neptune Strike 25-3 exercise.