Belarusian aircraft are now capable of carrying Russian nuclear weapons, Belarusian Leader Alexander Lukashenko announced Friday, in an ominous signal over six months into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
His threatening announcement comes just days after he sent Ukraine a happy Independence Day message, when he made a point to wish the country “peaceful skies.”
Lukashenko, a longtime Putin ally, wished Ukrainians “peaceful skies, tolerance, courage, strength and success in restoring a decent life.”
“I am convinced that today's contradictions will not be able to destroy the centuries-old sincere good-neighborly relations between the peoples of the two countries. Belarus will continue to stand up for the preservation of concord, development of friendly and mutually respectful contacts at all levels,” Lukashenko said on Wednesday, the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union, and, perhaps by coincidence, the six-month mark of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine earlier this year.
Ukraine rejected the “cynical” greeting from the Belarusian leader at the outset.
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“Lukashenko truly believes that the world does not notice his participation in crimes against [Ukraine]. And that is why he cynically wishes ‘peaceful sky’ by shelling us,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said. “This blood-soaked clowning is recorded and will have consequences.”
News that the Belarusian Su-24 aircraft have been converted to carry Russian nukes coincides with efforts from Russia to give off the image that Moscow is bolstering Putin’s fighting forces in Ukraine. Putin issued an order earlier this week to plus up Russia’s armed forces by 137,000, with a goal to have a total of 1.15 million troops on the hook. It was not clear whether Putin would rely on drafting conscripts or finding volunteers.
But if history and eyewitness accounts are any guide, it might not make a difference. Earlier efforts in the war to recruit more fighters for Ukraine have not gone particularly smoothly. Russia announced an effort to recruit tens of thousands of fighters from the Middle East, an effort which a senior U.S. defense official said at the time did not appear to be true.