Belarus is building a facility, presumably to store Russian nuclear weapons – media

A military base is under construction in Belarus where Russia may store its nuclear weapons.

This was reported by The New York Times on the basis of analysis of satellite images taken by Maxar.

The construction has been ongoing since March 2023 near the village of Osipovichi, where a military base has been located since Soviet times.

This city is located at a distance of about 190 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine.

The publication notes that some of the recently erected structures have features inherent in the storage of nuclear weapons at bases in the Russian Federation.

For example, a new territory that is carefully guarded. It is surrounded by three rows of fencing, in addition to the existing security perimeter around the entire base.

Another characteristic feature is the covered loading area, connected, it seems, to a hidden underground bunker from the Soviet era.

The alleged storage site for Russian nuclear weapons is located in the same city as the Iskander missile systems that Russia handed over to Belarus.

Missiles of these systems can be used as carriers of nuclear or conventional warheads.

To protect the site near Osipovichi, according to the images, an air defense system was also deployed. It appeared no later than mid-2023.

Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, analyzed the facility near Osipovichi and noted that in recent weeks the construction of new structures had begun there, “The details have not yet been determined, but the construction has clearly reached a new stage.”

As previously reported, on May 7, Belarus, which is an ally of Russia, announced a sudden check of means, such as carriers of tactical nuclear weapons with Iskander systems. Then it was noted that it was planned to check the entire range of measures from the planning, preparation and use of tactical nuclear ammunition strikes.