A newly added air defense system. A distinctive security checkpoint. And a triple fence around a bunker.
These new security features and other improvements at a munitions depot in central Belarus show that Russia is building facilities there that could house nuclear warheads. If Russia moves weapons to this location, it would be the first time it has stored these weapons outside the country since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russia already has nuclear warheads on its own territory close to Ukraine and NATO countries, but by basing some in Belarus, Russia appears to be accentuating its nuclear threat and strengthening its nuclear deterrent.
