The deployment is Moscow's first move of such warheads - shorter-range less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield - outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.
The Russian leader announced in March he had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the U.S deployment of such weapons in a host of European countries over many decades.
Earlier on Tuesday, he had said separately that the Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be physically deployed on the territory of Belarus "in several days" and that he had the facilities to host longer-range missiles too if ever needed.
No one has so far fought against a nuclear country, a country that has nuclear weapons."
Persons:
Lukashenko, Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin, Putin, didn't, Lidia Kelly, Andrew Osborn, Philippa Fletcher
Organizations:
United, Press Service, REUTERS, WE, NATO, Thomson
Locations:
Moscow, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russia, Soviet Union, Belarusian, Russian, Belarus, United States, China, Ukraine, Minsk Region, Republic of Belarus, Handout, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Soviet, Melbourne, London