Ukraine called Sunday for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to confront Russia's "nuclear blackmail" after President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would deploy "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Russian officials have repeatedly made veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine in the event of a major escalation in the conflict. Belarus borders Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.

"Ukraine is waiting for active measures from the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France to counter the Kremlin's nuclear blackmail," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We demand that an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council be held immediately for this purpose," calling on the Group of Seven and the European Union to put pressure on Belarus by threatening it with "serious consequences" if it accepts the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons.

Earlier Sunday, the Secretary General of the Security Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, wrote in a tweet, "The Kremlin is holding Belarus nuclear hostage," adding that this decision is "a step towards destabilizing the country" led by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.

Danilov believed that Putin's announcement "raises to the maximum the negative impression and popular aversion towards Russia and Putin in the ranks of Belarusian society."

Putin announced Saturday that he had "agreed" with the Belarusian president that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, and that ten aircraft had been prepared to be ready to use this type of weapon.

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

"We agreed to do the same thing," he said, confirming the approval of Minsk.

"As of April 3, we will start training teams. And on July 1, we will complete the construction of a special depot for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus," he said.

On Sunday, the German government denounced a "new attempt at nuclear intimidation" by Russia.

Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine's presidential advisor, wrote in a tweet on Sunday that Putin "admits that he fears defeat (in the war) and that all he can do is sow fear."

He accused the Russian president of "violating the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons."

"We have already helped our Belarusian colleagues and equipped their planes...without violating our international obligations in terms of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Ten planes are ready to use this type of weapon," Putin said Saturday.

Belarus did not participate directly in the conflict in Ukraine, but it allowed Moscow to launch an attack from its territory on Kiev last year, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Putin justified his decision on Saturday with London's intention to send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, according to recent statements by a British official.

Putin vowed to use this type of missile if Kiev received similar ammunition from the West.

He added that weapons "can be classified as the most harmful and dangerous to humans as well as to the environment."

In a meeting this week between Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Moscow, they said that they reject any nuclear war, while tensions with the West have reached their peak, and stressed that everyone will lose in a similar confrontation.

In the joint declaration, the two countries made it clear that "there can be no winners in a nuclear war, and (such a war) should never happen."

Many Russian officials, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have threatened Ukraine and its Western allies to resort to nuclear weapons since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Putin announced last month that Moscow would suspend its participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining arms control treaty between the world's two major nuclear powers, Russia and the United States.

Putin's announcement was met with international condemnation, although the Russian Foreign Ministry later announced that Moscow would continue to comply "responsibly" with the restrictions imposed by the treaty, which was extended until February 5, 2026.

The Russian nuclear doctrine does not stipulate the preventive use by Russia of nuclear weapons, but only to respond to an attack against it or its allies, or in the event of a "threat to the existence of the state."