Ukraine Says Russia Holding Belarus As "Nuclear Hostage"

On Saturday, Putin said he and strongman Alexander Lukashenko "agreed" Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Kyiv on Sunday said Russia was holding Minsk as a "nuclear hostage" after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus.

"The Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage," the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, wrote on Twitter.

He added that the move was "a step towards the internal destabilization of the country".

On Saturday, Putin said he and strongman Alexander Lukashenko "agreed" Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.