Latvian FM calls deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus act of desperation

He said this in an interview with the Voice of America.

According to the minister, this won't fundamentally change the security situation, because even before the invasion, Russia had nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, which is located near the Baltic states.

“I believe this is an act of desperation, because you see that the war in Ukraine is not going well for Mr. Putin. Not [just for] three days, not three weeks, not three months, Russian troops have not been able to capture any significant city in Ukraine. I believe this is just a continuation of the nuclear blackmail that we've seen in the last year,” Rinkēvičs noted. 

The foreign minister also noted that this decision shows that Belarus is not a sovereign state.

“It's actually part of a Russian military district. And we need to impose more sanctions on both Russia and Belarus,” he added. 

Rinkēvičs also emphasized that it is wrong to think that Russia will stop escalating if its allies stop providing Ukraine with weapons.

“Russia is escalating, and it's not going to de-escalate simply if someone thinks that not providing Ukraine with means of defense would help the political process. The goal of Putin is not to sit at the negotiation table — the goal of Putin is to take over Ukraine, to [ethnically] cleanse it, to perpetrate all those atrocities revealed in territories liberated by Ukraine,” the minister said. 

• Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said that providing Ukraine with long-range missiles is not an escalation, and that Ukraine can fire at military bases in Russia because it is 'legitimate defense.'