Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Moscow has struck a deal with neighboring Belarus to deploy “tactical” nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, a country at the gates of the European Union.

“There is nothing unusual here: the United States has been doing this for decades. It has been developing its tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its allies for a long time,” Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian television.

“We agreed to do the same — without violating our commitments, I emphasize, without violating our international commitments on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Putin added.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long raised the issue of parking tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin said on state television.

“We have already helped our Belarusian colleagues and equipped their planes (…) without violating our international commitments on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Ten planes are ready to use this type of weapon,” Putin continued, adding that Moscow has already transferred to Belarus a number of Iskander tactical missile systems that can be used to launch nuclear weapons.

“From April 3 we start training the crews. And on July 1 we will complete the construction of a special storage for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus,” he said, indicating that Moscow would not transfer control of the weapons to Minsk.

According to the Russian president, this decision was motivated by London’s desire to send munitions containing non-enriched uranium to Ukraine, as a British official recently reported.

Vladimir Putin has threatened to use this type of shell as well, if Kiev receives such shells. “Russia, of course, has what it takes to respond. We have, without exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of such shells. We are not currently using them,” he stressed.