NUKE OFFER
VLADIMIR Putin's close ally Alexander Lukashenko has offered nuclear weapons to any country that chooses to join a Russia and Belarus union.
The Belarusian dictator said that it must be "strategically understood" that Minsk and Moscow have a chance to unite after moving ahead with plans allowing Russia to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
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In a major escalation of tensions over Ukraine, the two countries signed the agreement last week, in the Kremlin's first deployment of such warheads outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Speaking in an interview on Russia's state television late on Sunday, Lukashenko said there could be "nuclear weapons for everyone" if another country wishes to join the union.
He said: "No one is against Kazakhstan and other countries having the same close relations that we have with the Russian Federation.
"If someone is worried ... (then) it is very simple: join in the Union State of Belarus and Russia. That's all: there will be nuclear weapons for everyone."
The tyrant noted that this was his own view - not the view of Russia.
The two countries are formally part of a Union State, a borderless union and alliance between the two former Soviet republics.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, whose nation of 20 million people has close historical ties with Moscow but has refused to recognise Russia's annexation of parts of Ukraine, dismissed Lukashenko's invitation to join the union.
"I appreciated his joke," he said, adding that Kazakhstan was already a member of a broader Russian-led trade bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union, so no further integration was necessary.
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He added: "As for nuclear weapons, we do not need them because we have joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
"We remain committed to our obligations under those international documents."
The Belarusian President who has permitted Russian troops and air force on his landlocked territory bordering Ukraine, has previously warned Putin will spark a nuclear World War 3 if he faces defeat in Ukraine.
Addressing lawmakers and government officials in March, Lukashenko said Moscow's plans to station nuclear arms on its territory, would help protect Belarus, which he said was under threat from the West.
He called for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, cautioning that Russia would be forced to use "the most terrible weapon" if it felt threatened.
He said: "It is impossible to defeat a nuclear power. If the Russian leadership understands that the situation threatens to cause Russia's disintegration, it will use the most terrible weapon. This cannot be allowed."
Russia has used Belarus as a launchpad for its invasion of Ukraine and their military cooperation has intensified, with joint training exercises on Belarusian soil.
On Sunday, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said that another unit of the S-400 mobile, surface-to-air missile systems arrived from Moscow, with the systems to be ready for combat duty soon.