https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/...nuclear-status
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Voters in Belarus have approved constitutional reforms that will allow the country to host nuclear weapons at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launchpad for Russian troops invading Ukraine.
Russian news agencies on Monday cited the Belarusian elections commission as saying that some 65.2 percent of people who took part in a referendum voted in favour of the change.
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It could bring nuclear weapons back on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union and raises the stakes at a time when Lukashenko has fallen behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military assault on Ukraine.
Putin on Sunday ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces be put on high alert in a dramatic escalation of tensions with the West.
Speaking at a polling station on Sunday, Lukashenko said that he could ask Russia to return nuclear weapons to Belarus.
“If you [the West] transfer nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, to our borders, then I will turn to Putin to return the nuclear weapons that I gave away without any conditions,” Lukashenko said.
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The reforms also cement Lukashenko’s 27-year-old grip on power as they allow the president to stay in power until 2035 and give him lifetime immunity from prosecution once he leaves office.
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