Putin nuclear ally warns world is just a 'minute to doomsday'

A senior Belarusian minister has warned that the threat of nuclear war is once again a real possibility, as his country prepares to host more Russian nuclear weapons.

Speaking at the United Nations, Belarus’ Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov said the world is now the “closest ever” to nuclear catastrophe, pointing to the Doomsday Clock, which currently stands at just 89 seconds to midnight. The symbolic clock, first created in 1947 after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is widely seen as a measure of how near humanity is to self-destruction due to war, climate change, and emerging technologies.

Ryzhenkov declared:

“The world has once again returned to a point where the nuclear threat is clearly visible.”

The comments come as Belarus confirms that it will station Russian tactical nuclear warheads on its soil. Some of these weapons, such as the Oreshnik hypersonic missile system, are capable of reaching London within eight minutes and striking targets as far as 5,000 km (3,107 miles) away. The Oreshnik travels at speeds of Mach 10, making interception almost impossible.

Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, has backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and shares a 674-mile border with the country. Ryzhenkov blamed NATO for escalating tensions, accusing Western powers of rearming and placing mines along Belarus’ borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

He insisted the decision to host Russian nuclear weapons was a matter of national security:

“Belarus was forced to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons to guarantee its safety.”

The statement follows a new phase in the Ukraine conflict, where the U.S. and U.K. recently gave Kyiv permission to use Western-supplied missiles offensively against Russian targets. In response, Vladimir Putin authorised strikes with the Oreshnik system on a Ukrainian facility, warning that Moscow would respond “symmetrically” to any escalation from NATO countries.

This latest development highlights how fragile global security has become, with nuclear rhetoric and weapons deployment raising fears of a wider confrontation.