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Belarus Nuclear Weapons
When the Soviet Union dissolved, Belarus (along with
Russia,
Ukraine, and Kazakhstan) technically became a nuclear
power
because of the eighty-one SS-25 intercontinental ballistic
missiles on its soil, even though the republic's
Declaration of
State Sovereignty declared Belarus to be a nuclear-free
state. In
May 1992, Belarus signed the Lisbon Protocol to the Treaty
on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and, along with
Ukraine and
Kazakhstan, agreed to destroy or turn over all strategic
nuclear
warheads on its territory to Russia.
To achieve this objective, the Supreme Soviet had to
ratify
the START I Treaty. For some time, however, the
legislature
stalled while seeking international guarantees of the
republic's
security and international funding to carry out the
removal.
Finally, on February 4, 1993, the START I Treaty was
ratified,
and adherence to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was
approved. All tactical nuclear weapons were removed from
Belarus
by mid-1993, but although the country strove to remove the
strategic nuclear weapons (based at Lida and Mazyr) by
1995,
there was little hope of meeting this deadline.
Lukashyenka
decided to stop Conventional Forces in Europe
(CFE--See Glossary)
arms reductions in February 1995, claiming NATO
encroachments on
Belarus's territory; rather, it was a matter of finances.
These
remaining strategic nuclear weapons were tended by Russian
troops
who would continue to be stationed there for twenty-five
years
according to the customs union agreements reached with
Russia in
January and February 1995
(see Russian Troops
, this ch.).
Data as of June 1995
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