Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko warned that nuclear weapons would be used against NATO if it attacked either his nation or Russia.
Belarus does not have nuclear weapons of its own, but it has been hosting Russian tactical warheads on its territory since last year, amid Moscow's ongoing war in Ukraine.
Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the warning while speaking at an event with students in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, on Friday.
He warned that an attack on Belarus would be "World War Three" and that NATO troops crossing its border would be a "red line," according to the country's national news agency Belta.
The Belarusian leader said that Russia's nuclear doctrine had been amended to state that nuclear weapons would be used in the event of an attack on either country.
"As I said at the patriotic forum [held on 17 September], an attack against Belarus will trigger World War III. Recently, Vladimir Putin has confirmed it, having amended the nuclear doctrine. An attack on Russia and Belarus will trigger a nuclear response," Lukashenko said.
"If we use nuclear weapons, they will do the same. And against Russia too. So Russia will use the entire arsenal of weapons. This will be a world war. The West does not want this. They are not ready for it. We tell them openly: the red line is the state border. You step on it, we will respond immediately. We are preparing for this," Lukashenko said, according to the Belarusian outlet.
Newsweek reached out to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment via email.
Ever since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, fears of an escalation into nuclear warfare have been mounting.
Putin recently amped up his warnings saying Wednesday that Russia was widening its rules for nuclear weapon use, as Lukashenko referenced.
This was the Russian leader's strongest warning yet, following Ukraine being permitted to launch strikes deep into Russian territory using long-range missiles provided by the West.
Russia also last week warned the West and Ukraine of "disastrous consequences" if Ukraine moved to attack Belarus, with a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson citing increasingly "provocative" activity on the border with Belarus.
Belarus began amassing troops on its border with Ukraine in August, which it said was due to the presence of Ukrainian soldiers around the border, raising military tensions between the two nations.
Lukashenko has avoided direct involvement in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, but has allowed Putin to use Belarusian territory as a staging post for attacks on Kyiv.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
