Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in St. Petersburg that missile systems “can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, in both conventional and nuclear versions,” according to the Kremlin.
Russia launched its invasion on February 24 in part from Belarusian territory, which borders Ukraine to the north. Throughout the war, Moscow has used Minsk as a satellite base, included for many of Russia’s air operations in Ukraine, according to intelligence gathered by NATO surveillance aircraft.
On Saturday, Ukraine claimed that Russian forces had fired multiple missiles at the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions from Belarus.
In a transcript of the meeting, Lukashenko expressed to Putin his “stress” by alleging that they are flights of U.S. and NATO planes “training to carry nuclear warheads” near the Belarusian border. .
He called on Putin to consider “a mirror response” to the flights or to convert Russian fighter jets, which are currently deployed in Belarus, to “carry nuclear warheads.”
Putin responded that “there is no need” to match U.S. flights and suggested that Belarus could modify its own Su-25 aircraft to be nuclear-capable.
“This modernization should be carried out in the aircraft factories of Russia, but we will agree with you on how to do it. And as a result, start training the flight crew,” Putin said.
What is the Skander-M?
The Iskander-M is a Russian-built short-range ballistic missile system that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads with a maximum range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to Janes Defense.
The weapon uses optical and inertial guidance systems to hit its targets, hitting them with a variety of warheads, such as cluster munitions, vacuum bombs, bunkers, and electromagnetic impulse (EMP) warheads, according to the Missile Defense Alliance.
The Iskander-M was first used in 2008 during the Russia-Georgia conflict, when the Russian military used it to hit targets in Gori, according to the Alliance.
CNN has contacted the Pentagon to comment on Lukashenko’s claims.
G7 and NATO summits
The meeting between Russian and Belarusian strongmen took place before a week of summits in Europe, where the war in Ukraine, which is entering its fifth month, will be at the forefront and center.
Leaders from Japan, Canada, the US, the UK, France, Italy, the European Union and host Germany will meet on Monday for the Group of 7.
U.S. President Joe Biden hopes to announce new sanctions and military assistance alongside European allies during his visits to Germany and Spain. Both the G7 and NATO summits will listen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who continues to appeal to the US and other countries for more help.
During his speech on Saturday night, Zelensky said “sanctions packages against Russia are not enough” and called on Western partners to provide Ukraine with more “armed assistance.”
“Air defense systems, the modern systems that our partners have, should not be in training areas or storage facilities, but in Ukraine, where they are now needed,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military confirmed on Saturday that it had begun using an advanced US-supplied multi-launch rocket (MLRS) system to attack Russian targets. The commander-in-chief of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, released a video that he said showed high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, launching its missile at night at an unspecified location. CNN reported on Thursday that HIMARS had arrived in Ukraine, citing the country’s defense. Ministries.
Fall of Severodonetsk
On Saturday, the city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine was “completely under Russian occupation,” the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Striuk, said after months of grueling and bloody fighting. Severodonetsk was one of the last major strongholds of Ukraine in the area.
Regional military officials said Friday that the last troops in Severodonetsk had been ordered to march, as it was impossible to continue defending their positions. This effectively ceded the city to Russia and put the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk almost entirely under Russian control.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces have now taken control of the entire left bank of the Siverskyi Donets, the east side of the river and all the borders of the Lugansk People’s Republic.
Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the defense ministry, said Russian forces had “completely liberated the cities of Severodonetsk and Borivske, the Voronove and Syrotyne settlements of the Lugansk People’s Republic.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Tim Lister and Olga Voitovych contributed to the report.