Belarus has begun checks on the Readiness of its Army to deploy tactical nuclear weapons simultaneously with a drill being carried out by Russia right in front of Ukraine during the inspection bellarus defense minister assured that the entire range of activities from Court un courot planning preparation and use of strikes with tactical nuclear weapons will be checked the checks involved an isander missile Division and a squadron of s25 aircraft Russia on the other hand said that it would practice the deployment of a tactical nuclear weapon as part of a military exercise after threats were issued from France a UK and the United States belarussian leader Alexander lucashenko who is the staunchest Ally to President Vladimir Putin in April said that several dozen Russian tactical nuclear weapons were deployed in Belarus under an agreement announced last year by Putin himself now let's take a look at what these tactical nuclear weapons are and the part they play in kremlin's political messaging beginning with what are tactical nuclear weapons all about starting here tactical nukes typically refer to short range weapons the categorization includes land-based missiles with a range of less than 500 km it also includes air and sea launched weapons with a range of less than 600 km tactical nukes constitute a large percentage of the arsenals of the nuclear weapon States they are the least regulated category of nuclear weapons covered in Arms Control control agreements tactical nukes are only subject to an informal regime created by unilateral parallel declarations made by George Bush and Mikel Gorbachev in the fall of 1991 Russia has a wide array of weapon systems to launch nukes of the around 6,000 nuclear weapons 1200 are retired but largely they are still intact and around 4,380 are stockpiled experts estimate around 1500 Russian Warheads are currently deployed that essentially means they are on heavy bomber bases or in submarines at Sea the Biden Administration has termed the Russian nuclear drills as quote unquote irresponsible rhetoric since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 Russia has repeatedly warned of rising nuclear risks through though us officials say they have seen no change in Russia's nuclear posture [Music]