Russian President Vladimir Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that the shipment of nuclear weapons to Belarus would begin next month at a meeting in Sochi on Friday, June 9.

According to a machine-translated transcript from the meeting, Putin told Lukashenko: “Everything is going according to plan regarding the most sensitive issues that we have discussed with you. As you know, on 7-8 July we are finishing the preparation of the relevant facilities, and we will immediately start the activities related to the deployment of the relevant types of weapons on your territory.”

Russian news reports interpreted Putin as referring to a May agreement to send non-strategic nuclear weapons to Belarus. Credit: Kremlin via Storyful