9/13/2023 0 Comments Power blocks expansion![]() German media reported the boat could have been used by a small Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian group. Germany has confirmed its investigators raided a ship in January that may have been used to transport the explosives used to blow up the pipelines. “I think, actually, in time, will be brought to light.” “I hope that we at least this autumn will be able to make a decision regarding indictments, at least that is the ambition as things stand now,” Ljungqvist told Swedish public service broadcaster SR. Reuters reports that Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor leading the Swedish investigation, told Swedish Radio he had met the German prosecutor and that they were working together but declined to give further details. Sweden hopes to be able to determine who was behind the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage by the autumn, the prosecutor leading the country’s investigation told Swedish radio. Scholz had said Germany would start to invest more than 2% of economic output on defence, up from about 1.5%, after years of resisting pleas from Nato allies to do so. It also contains a commitment for Germany to spend an average of 2% of economic output on defence, according to the summary – a weaker pledge, however, than the one made by chancellor Olaf Scholz days after the Russian invasion in a landmark speech heralding a “turning of era” or Zeitenwende in German foreign policy. The strategy, which is expected to be published in full later on Wednesday, comes a year and a half after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which exposed Germany’s reliance on Russia for energy. Germany is aiming to reduce its dependence on commodities through diversification of supply, and to create incentives for firms to hold strategic reserves, according to a summary of its new national security strategy. (Photo/Markus Schreiber) Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the cabinet meeting of the German government in Berlin, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. In a video published on 14 June, Lukashenko said his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons. He has also said that there could be “nuclear weapons for everyone” who joined the Russia-Belarus union. He seemed to indicate last month that the weapons were already on the move while on 13 June he said the weapons would be deployed in “several days”. Putin said Russia would finish the construction of a special storage facility in Belarus on 7-8 July and that the weapons would be deployed soon afterwards. Cities such as Berlin and Stockholm would be in range. If so, the delivery vehicles could reach most of Ukraine, almost all of eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, a swathe of Germany, as well as some of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The Federation of American Scientists has said the weapons could be based at Lida airbase, 40km (25 miles) from the Lithuanian border. The Sukhoi-25 jet has a range of up to 1,000km (621 miles), according to Russian sources. Belarus said Su-25 aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. Putin also said 10 Belarusian aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. Russian sources say the Iskander has a range of 500km (310 miles). ![]() Putin said Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missiles, which can deliver nuclear warheads, had already been handed over to Belarus. Russia has about 1,816 non-strategic nuclear warheads, according to analysis of Russia’s nuclear weapons by Bulletin of Atomic Scientists magazine. If Lukashenko is correct, the Russian warheads would have a yield of about 48 to 63 kilotons each. The Hiroshima bomb, made from highly enriched uranium-235, was about 16 kilotons (equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT), while the Nagasaki bomb, made from plutonium-239, was about 21 kilotons, according to the World Nuclear Association. Lukashenko said the warheads were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Putin said that “tactical” nuclear weapons – so called as they are designed for battlefield use – would be sent to Belarus, but did not say exactly which warheads would be deployed or where. Reuters has a useful explainer on the Russian tactical nuclear weapons that are to be stationed in Belarus, and which the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, mentioned earlier ( see here).
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