When Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko announced in March 2023 that Moscow was to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, the search for where the missiles might be stored began.
In May 2023, Viktor Khrenin, the Belarus defense minister, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, signed an agreement in public for the storage of Russian nuclear warheads.
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A month later, Reuters cited Lukashenko saying his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons – which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
He added that he himself had asked Putin to “return nuclear weapons to Minsk” and that he was ready to use them “without hesitation in case of aggression against Belarus [or Russia].”
This boast was somewhat undermined by the CIS Secretary General Sergei Lebedev, who said the weapons would be controlled by a “double nuclear button,” meaning that effective control over the use of the weapons would remain in the Kremlin’s hands.
In May 2024, the New York Times published an article in which it thought it had found the location of the weapons. This was based on analysis of open-source satellite images taken in February 2024 of new construction taking place in a former Soviet military base near the town of Asipovichy, around 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
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The images showed forest being cleared for rail tracks, along with earthworks and what appeared to be the foundations of loading platforms inside the base.
The location is the same one that Belarus has used to store the Iskander short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM), which can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads, that Russia provided in late 2022.
An article published by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in November suggested the nuclear weapons provided to Belarus were probably for use with the Iskanders as well as 15-20-kiloton aerial bombs, deliverable from its Soviet-era Su-25 and Su-30 aircraft. These would allow Belarus to engage targets out to around 500 kilometers (312 miles).
On Monday, March 24, the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty provided more definitive evidence that seemed to confirm the NYT’s speculation that this was indeed a nuclear weapons storage site.
A photo posted online in September showed Lieutenant Colonel Valery Kuzmin, the commander of the 1,405th ammunition base, which is located at the site, as he handed out awards to members of his unit.
On a wall in the background of the shots is a digital monitor which RFE/RL identified as an “Atomtex AT2327 signal indicator,” which is used to monitor radiation levels from nuclear material. This equipment is only known to be used by Belarus’ 8th Radiation Safety, Chemical, and Biological Protection Brigade, and by military unit No. 7434, which guards the Astravetskaya nuclear power station. The latter is based in northwestern Belarus more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
As further evidence, RFE/RL says it has seen documents showing that iodine prophylaxis – used as protection for individuals in the event of a nuclear radiation incident – was delivered and stored at the 1,405th as well as another military base close to Asipovichy, which could also be a potential nuclear warheads storage site.
Recent satellite imagery cited by RFE/RL also highlights extensive construction on the sites, which show possible weapons storage buildings, vehicle hangars suitable for Iskander launch vehicles, hard standing for air defense systems, as well as new apartment blocks and a sports stadium.
It seems almost certain that this is the site for Belarus to store at least some of the weapons. In December, Lukashenko suggested that many more than “just a dozen” nuclear warheads had been brought to his country during a covert operation where “They [the West] didn’t even notice.”