Poland says ready to deploy nuclear weapons, Russia reacts immediately

Polish President Andrzej Duda has just announced that his country is ready to place nuclear weapons if NATO decides to deploy them, in the context of Russia doing so in Belarus and Kaliningrad.

Poland is a NATO member and a supporter of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. It shares borders with both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus – Moscow’s closest ally.

“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons on our territory as part of nuclear sharing, to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready to do so,” Duda said in an interview published in the Polish daily Fakt on April 22.

President Duda spoke to Polish media after a visit to New York, where he held meetings at the United Nations and discussed the war in Ukraine with former US President Donald Trump. In March, he visited Washington DC, where he met with current US President Joe Biden.

Discussions on nuclear cooperation between Poland and the US have been going on “for some time”, Mr Duda said.

“I have spoken about this many times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared my readiness,” the Polish president said, arguing that Russia is increasingly militarizing Kaliningrad and that Moscow has recently transferred its nuclear weapons to Belarus.

World - Poland says ready to place nuclear weapons, Russia reacts immediately — Kaliningrad is an exclave of the Russian Federation located on the Baltic Sea. Poland borders Kaliningrad and Belarus. Photo: TRT World

In June last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia had sent tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, a country that borders Ukraine and Poland.

Responding to the Polish President's latest statement on nuclear weapons, the Kremlin said on April 22 that the Russian military would analyze any move by Warsaw to receive US nuclear weapons.

“The military will analyze the situation. If these plans are implemented, all necessary steps will be taken to ensure our security,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The US currently has nuclear weapons in five NATO member countries, including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Türkiye.

Russia and the United States are the two leading nuclear powers. The United States currently deploys 1,419 strategic warheads on hundreds of bombers and missiles, while Russia has 1,549. Both sides are modernizing their nuclear delivery systems. Warheads are counted under the provisions of the New START agreement, which was extended for five years in January 2021.

Russia suspended its participation in the treaty on February 21 last year. In response, the United States took steps to limit information sharing and verification. However, both the United States and Russia have committed to complying with the treaty’s central limits on strategic force deployments until 2026.

New START limits each country to 1,550 strategically deployed warheads and stipulates only one deployed nuclear warhead per deployed heavy bomber, regardless of how many warheads that bomber carries .

Minh Duc (According to The Guardian, Reuters, Arms Control)

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