Russia announces plan to store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

March 25 (UPI) -- Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.

Putin said that there was "nothing unusual" about the decision and that it did not violate any international treaties, according to Russian news agency TASS.

"There is nothing unusual here either: firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries," he said. "We agreed that we will do the same."

While Russia will build a storage facility in Belarus, it will retain control over the weapons.

"We have handed over to Belarus our well-known and very effective Iskander system that can carry [nuclear weapons]," Putin said, according to TASS. "On April 3, we will start training the crew and on July 1 we will complete the construction of a special storage for tactical nuclear weapons on the Belarusian territory."

According to Radio Free Europe, Putin threatened depleted uranium ammunition to its military fighting in Ukraine if the West sent such munitions to Kyiv.

"Russia, of course, has what it needs to answer. Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands of such shells. We have not used them yet," Putin said.