• 

Russian nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus are of deterrent nature for those oblivious in the West who assume they can inflict on Russia a strategic defeat, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday in an address at the economic forum in St. Petersburg.

"As you know we were negotiating with our ally, Belarusian President [Alexander] Lukashenko, that we would move a part of these tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus - this has happened," he said.

"The first nuclear warheads were delivered to the territory of Belarus. But only the first ones, the first part. But we will do this job completely by the end of the summer or by the end of the year," Putin revealed, adding that in the current circumstances, Moscow does not see the need to use these weapons.

Read more: Russia and Belarus define non-strategic nuclear arms procedure

"...It is precisely as an element of deterrence so that all those who are thinking about inflicting a strategic defeat on us are not oblivious to this circumstance."

Earlier this week, Lukashenko said that Moscow already started transferring nuclear warheads to his country, including some that are three times more powerful than the nuclear weapons dropped by the US on Japan's Hiroshima in 1945.

The delivery of tactical nuclear weapons to Russia's neighboring ally was announced by Putin back in March, when he explained that this move will be similar to the United States' deployment of some of its nuclear arsenal in Europe, further noting that Russia's action does not violate the nuclear nonproliferation agreements NPT.

However, the atomic bombs will remain under Moscow's control, Russia's leader confirmed.

Nuclear weapons to ensure security

Russia's nuclear posture has not changed, Putin continued, and nuclear weapons will only be used if the Russian Federation was under direct existential threat.

Kiev's Western allies, who play a key role in arming Ukraine, criticized this step, but Washington said that there are no indications that Putin has plans to use them.

"Nuclear weapons have been made to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but we...have no such need [to use them]," Putin said.

"Just talking about this (the potential use of nuclear weapons) lowers the nuclear threshold. We have more than NATO countries and they want to reduce our numbers. Sc*** them," Putin said.

On the war in Ukraine, the president said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed so far, pointing out that Kiev has suffered heavy losses and stands no chance against the Russian army.

Moreover, according to Putin, Ukraine's local military arsenal would soon be depleted and will make the country rely completely on foreign hardware - a condition that would affect Kiev's ability to fight for long.

"As for demilitarisation, soon Ukraine will stop using its own equipment altogether. There's nothing left. Everything on which they fight and everything that they use is brought in from the outside. Well, you can't fight like that for long."

Up in flames

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported on Friday that Ukraine's ambitious counteroffensive against Russia - which it launched in a bid to take the lands captured by the country through the war effort - is proving to be quite a difficult task, 

After Ukraine's first attacks yielded mixed results, most of the war efforts on the counteroffensive fronts have been halted, as army commanders are revising previous plans that proved to fail in breaking Russia's defensive lines without suffering heavy losses, the newspaper said.

But so far, the majority of the Ukrainian offensive brigades, equipped with powerful Western tanks, have not yet joined the fight, the report argued.

Putin said that if Kiev receives F-16 fighter jets from the West, they will end up being destroyed just like the German-made Leopard battle tanks.

"F-16s will also be burning, there is no doubt. But if they will be stationed outside Ukraine and used in combat operations we will have to look at how to engage and where to engage those assets being used in combat operations against us."

This would "seriously" risk dragging NATO deeper into the conflict, he concluded.