Belarus declared on Tuesday that it will host Russian tactical nuclear weapons, citing years of Western pressure, including sanctions and what it described as a military buildup by NATO member states on its borders.

The foreign ministry statement was the first from the government since Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Saturday that Moscow will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and create a nuclear weapons storage facility there.

“Over the last two and a half years, the Republic of Belarus has been subjected to unprecedented political, economic and information pressure from the United States, the United Kingdom and its NATO allies, as well as the member states of the European Union,” the ministry said in a statement.

It complained of “direct and brutal interference” in domestic affairs, in a country that has been ruled with an iron first for nearly three decades by ex-Soviet collective farm boss Lukashenko.

“In view of these circumstances, and the legitimate concerns and risks in the sphere of national security arising from them, Belarus is forced to respond by strengthening its own security and defence capabilities,” the ministry said.

The decision to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus was one of Moscow’s toughest nuclear signals to the West since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year in what it calls a “special military operation”.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have warned that the step, which Putin said would mirror the way the United States deploys nuclear warheads in Europe without relinquishing control of them, will lower the threshold for the use of tactical short-range battlefield nuclear weapons and is unnecessary from a military viewpoint.

Minsk said the Russian nuclear plans would not contravene international non-proliferation agreements as Belarus itself would not have control over the nuclear weapons.

“The training of Belarusian pilots able to fly planes with specific warheads, the modernisation of such planes, and the deployment of nuclear warheads on Belarusian territory without giving Minsk control over them or access to the relevant technologies does not in any way contravene the provisions of the non-proliferation treaty,” it said.