Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has condemned authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's acceptance of a plan to place Russian nuclear arms in Belarus, saying on the 37th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident that the move shows that he learned nothing from the disaster.
Belarusians "learned the lesson and know what a nuclear disaster is about," but "dictators did not," she said in an April 26 video statement on YouTube marking the world's worst nuclear disaster. She later appeared in Vilnius to mark the anniversary and protest Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Moscow could deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus -- which borders Ukraine and three NATO nations -- by July, a move Lukashenka has agreed with.
Russian authorities have repeatedly raised the specter of the potential use of nuclear weapons since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the frequency of the warnings increasing as the conflict drags on.
Putin's announcement on moving the nuclear weapons sparked immediate criticism from governments around the world, while NATO called it "dangerous and irresponsible."
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Belarusian Opposition Marks Chernobyl Anniversary In Vilnius By Protesting Russian Nukes
Tsikhanouskaya said in her statement that "74 percent of Belarusians are against [the plans to station Russia's tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus]," but "their opinions were not taken into consideration."
"[Lukashenka's] regime insists that it will be capable to control the nuclear arms. But is unable even to control its own nuclear power plant built in Astravets. How many incidents did take place there? Five? Ten? But we understand that radiation does not make a difference between ranks and posts. Absolutely everyone is exposed," Tsikhanouskaya said.
She also called on Belarusians residing abroad to hold marches in the cities in which they live.
"Become the voices of millions of Belarusians who are against the plans to place nuclear weapons in Belarus," Tsikhanouskaya said.
Tsikhanouskaya's comments come 37 years after an explosion and fire caused by a reactor meltdown at the Chernobyl power plant -- located 110 kilometers north of Kyiv near the border with Belarus -- sent clouds of lethal nuclear material across much of Europe.
The city of Pripyat, home to some 50,000 people near the power plant, was evacuated along with other communities in a 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the radioactive wreckage.
Dozens of people, particularly firefighters and other first responders, died as a direct result of the disaster, but radiation poisoning is believed to have killed thousands more across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and other countries in the years that followed.
In 2016, a crumbling "sarcophagus" used to contain radiation from the smoldering reactor was replaced with a $2.3 billion metal dome in a bid to stop future leaks. More than 200 tons of uranium remain buried inside.