Ukraine requests a special UN meeting in response to Putin's nuclear ambitions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus in response to the West's increasing military support for Ukraine. Putin argued that by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia was following the lead of the United States, which has nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry condemned the move and demanded an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to counter the Kremlin's nuclear blackmail. Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, tweeted that Putin's announcement was "a step towards internal destabilization" of Belarus that maximized "the level of negative perception and public rejection" of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society.

On Saturday, Putin argued that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long asked to have nuclear weapons in his country again to counter NATO. Belarus shares borders with three NATO members and Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground to send troops into neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use on the battlefield and have a short range and a low yield compared with much more powerful nuclear warheads fitted to long-range missiles.