La alianza\u00a0entre Bielorrusia\u00a0y\u00a0Rusia en el\u00a0marco de\u00a0la\u00a0invasi\u00f3n a Ucrania, avanza en nuevas medidas para reforzar ese apoyo mutuo. En relaci\u00f3n a ello, el presidente de Bielorrusia Lukashenko, ha anunciado que se encuentra lista la modificaci\u00f3n de sus aeronaves de combate Sukhoi Su-25, para darles la capacidad de carga y lanzamiento de\u00a0Armas Nucleares\u00a0T\u00e1cticas. Complementariamente, el presidente Putin ha anunciado que Rusia proveer\u00e1 a su aliado, de Sistemas lanzadores de Misiles Bal\u00edsticos de Corto Alcance (SRBM) Iskander-M, equipados con capacidad nuclear. Cabe destacar que el sistema\u00a0SRBM Iskander, de probada eficiencia en combate, est\u00e1 siendo utilizado actualmente con cabezas de guerra convencionales. en\u00a0los distintos frentes de batalla de la invasi\u00f3n de Rusia a Ucrania.<\/p>\n
WARSAW, Poland \u2014 As Belarus\u2019s involvement in the Russian war against Ukraine continues to push Minsk towards an even closer military cooperation with Moscow, Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko has announced that Russia upgraded his country\u2019s jets to enable them to carry tactical atomic weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutin and I once said in St. Petersburg that we will refit Belarusian Sukhoi aircraft among other things so that they could carry nuclear weapons,\u201d the Belarusian dictator said, according to state-owned news agency BelTA, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. \u201cDo you think we talk nonsense? Everything is ready,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Last June, during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Lukashenko\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0Putin to modernize his country\u2019s Sukhoi Su-25s to allow them to carry nuclear weapons. The Belarusian authoritarian leader claimed this would enable the country\u2019s air force to mirror NATO drills. During the same meeting, Russia\u2019s leader said his country will provide nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles to Belarus.<\/p>\n The Belarusian military \u201chas a fairly big number of Su-25 planes. They can be respectively re-equipped,\u201d Putin said at the meeting.<\/p>\n Industry publications estimate Belarus operates 67 Su-25 jets which makes the fighter the most prevalent combat aircraft in the country\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n Marek Jablonowski, a political scientist from the University of Warsaw, told Defense News the Belarusian regime believes that \u201cflexing its military muscles can secure its survival\u201d, and that it is \u201cshowing readiness to trade an even bigger part of its sovereignty in exchange for Moscow\u2019s backing.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some analysts believe Minsk will mostly use the alleged upgrade for the purpose of its propaganda directed at the West.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Putin, to give Lukashenka nuclear weapons is to strengthen him and his position. Not sure he wants it,\u201d tweeted Hanna Liubakova, Belarusian journalist and a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank. \u201cThe Russian [A]rmy used other airfields (closer to the Ukrainian border) to station its jets and missile launch systems. Those didn\u2019t and won\u2019t belong to the regime in Minsk.\u201d<\/p>\n There are also technical questions surrounding the purported upgrade. \u201cThe Su-25 has significant limitations in this role, and this raises questions about the credibility of Russia\u2019s and Belarus\u2019 announcement,\u201d researchers at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in a paper last month. \u201cDesigned as a close air support aircraft, the Su-25 would probably be limited to deliver a nuclear weapon only in free-fall mode\u201d while having lower survivability than comparable NATO, the analysts wrote.<\/p>\n