Kremlin says it won't change plans on Belarus nuclear weapons

MOSCOW/ KYIV — The Kremlin on Monday said Western criticism would not change plans announced by President Vladimir Putin to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus.

The West condemned Putin's weekend announcement on placing the weapons in EU and NATO-bordering Belarus, triggering calls for new sanctions on Moscow.

Ukraine said it was seeking an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the move.

"Such a reaction of course cannot influence Russian plans," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Speaking during a televised interview on Saturday, Putin said Moscow would station the tactical nuclear weapons "without violating our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation".

He said this was "nothing unusual".

"The United States has been doing this for decades. They have long placed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies," Putin said.

The Russian leader said he spoke to his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko and that they had "agreed to do the same".

Putin's announcement came over a year into his grinding offensive in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian official in the battered frontline town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region said Monday municipal workers were being withdrawn, as Russian forces claim incremental gains nearby.

"It's a shame to admit, but Avdiivka looks more and more like a scene from post-apocalyptic movies," the head of the town's administration Vitalii Barabash said on social media.

“Therefore, a difficult decision was made to evacuate... municipal workers, who at least somehow tried to maintain the cleanliness and vitality of the city.”

Russian forces have been working to capture the entire eastern Donetsk region for several months, with the focus of fighting centring on Bakhmut, north of Avdiivka.

“I strongly recommend leaving Avdiivka, because Russian rockets and projectiles do not spare anyone or anything, no matter what views you hold,” Barabash added in the statement.

He posted images on Facebook showing badly damaged residential buildings and rubble and debris strewn through mostly abandoned buildings.

The town lies just 13 kilometres from Donetsk, the Russian-held administrative centre of the region. Before the February 2022 invasion, the town had a population of 30,000.

After more than a year of fighting, only 2,300 people are left, including 1,960 living off aid, Barabash said earlier this month.