“A top Russian diplomat has refused to rule out deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus amid continued high tensions with Ukraine and its NATO partners. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told reporters on Tuesday that "all options" would be considered if NATO moved ahead with proposed Ukrainian membership, or deployed additional weaponry in Baltic member states along the Russian border, RIA Novosti reported. Some 100,000 troops backed by armored vehicles and artillery are currently deployed along Ukraine's frontiers with Russia and Belarus ... President Alexander Lukashenko ... told RIA Novosti in November that Minsk would ask Moscow to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory if NATO did the same in Poland ... Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei told RT Arabic that Minsk ‘is considering deploying nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.’ Such a step, he said, ‘is one of the possible responses to future possible actions by the North Atlantic alliance on the territory of Poland’ ... Rudenko said on Tuesday nothing has been ruled out. ‘We have heard such proposals from our Belarusian allies,’ the deputy foreign minister said to questions about possible nuclear deployments in Belarus. ‘All options will be considered, but much, as I said, will depend on the reaction we expect to receive from the United States and NATO’” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...d-nato-standoff-diplomat-says/ar-AAS1uTH
“Russia wants to avoid conflict with Ukraine and the West, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, but needs an ‘immediate’ response from the United States and its allies to its demands for security guarantees ... ‘You must give us guarantees, and immediately - now,’ he said ... the United States and NATO have said they will discuss the package with Russia early next year, aware that outright rejection could further inflame the crisis” https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-we-dont-want-conflict-over-ukraine-2021-12-23/
