KYIV/MOSCOW: As Moscow seeks to gain full control over the east of Ukraine after capturing Severodonetsk, President Vladimir Putin in a TV broadcast before a meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko announced that Russia would deliver missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the coming months.

“In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin said in a broadcast at the start of their meeting in Saint Petersburg.

He also offered to upgrade Belarus’ warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons, amid soaring tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia’s army “fully occupied” the key Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after weeks of fighting, its mayor said on Saturday, an important strategic win for Moscow.

Putin promises Minsk N-capable missiles; Ukraine alleges ‘massive bombardment’ from Belarus

The industrial hub of Severodonetsk has been the scene of weeks of running battles, but the Ukrainian army said Friday that its outgunned forces would withdraw to better defend the neighbouring city of Lysychansk.

“The city has been fully occupied by the Russians,” mayor Oleksandr Striuk said on Saturday.

A few hours earlier, pro-Moscow separatists said Russian troops and their allies had entered Lysychansk, which faces Severodonetsk across the river.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had come under “massive bombardment” early on Saturday morning from neighbouring Belarus, a Russian ally not officially involved in the conflict.

Twenty rockets “fired from the territory of Belarus and from the air” targeted the village of Desna in the northern Chernigiv region, Ukraine’s northern military command said.

Belarus has provided logistic support to Moscow since the February 24 invasion, particularly in the first few weeks, and like Russia has been targeted by Western sanctions — but is officially not involved in the conflict.

On Saturday, Severodonetsk mayor Striuk said civilians had started to evacuate the Azot chemical plant, where several hundred people had been hiding from Russian shelling.

Polish fighters killed

Russia’s defence ministry says its troops have killed “up to 80” Polish fighters in “precision strikes” on the Megatex zinc factory in Konstantinovka in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.

“Up to 80 Polish mercenaries, 20 armoured combat vehicles and eight Grad multiple rocket launchers were destroyed in precision strikes on the Megatex zinc factory in Konstantinovka” in the Donetsk region, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement that could not be independently verified.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2022