Putin Confirms Russian Nuclear Weapons Deployed in Belarus as Warning to West

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that a first tranche of Russian tactical nuclear weapons has been stationed in Belarus as a stop-gap against a possible "strategic defeat" in Ukraine. Putin said the warheads would only be used if Russia's territory was threatened. US and Western officials brushed off Putin's most recent batch of nuclear threats, saying there are no indications that Russia is preparing to actually use a nuclear weapon. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Belarus had begun accepting delivery of the Russian warheads.