Ukraine calls for emergency UN meeting over Russia’s nuclear weapons plan

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. He called the meeting after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to deploy nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus.

Russia has been using Belarus as a launchpad for assaults on Ukraine. Ukraine is asking the U.N. to intervene now that Moscow wants to send tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus by July. Ukraine officials are calling Russia’s actions “nuclear blackmail.”

Russia has continued to boast its nuclear capabilities, but the U.S. and other NATO allies believe there are no plans from Russia to initiate a nuclear war.

In Putin’s announcement, he compared the weapons transfer to that of the U.S. deploying tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its allied countries, but Ukraine is arguing that moving weapons to Belarus would undermine nuclear treaties.

Western officials said they are closely monitoring movement from Moscow, but feel Putin’s announcement is largely a veiled threat, and not a serious nuclear one.