Russia Rehearses Launch of Nuclear Weapons From Belarus

Russia and Belarus rehearsed the launch of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus as part of joint military exercises, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday. The move is the latest from an increasingly aggressive Russia that is frightening Europe into rapid militarization.

• The “Zapad 2025” joint war games took place September 12–16.
• The exercises involved both tactical nuclear weapons and Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missiles.
• The Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a reported range of some 3,000 miles.
• It is equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles and can carry six to eight nuclear warheads, each able to hit a different target.

European fear: The rehearsal alarmed many Europeans, as it took place well within striking range of their cities and displays Russia’s intensifying belligerence.

Military analyst Alexander Alesin said that from Europe’s point of view, Russian nuclear deployments in Belarus have turned the nation into a “balcony looming over the West.”

As Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry said the move would terrify Europe in a way that would prompt it to militarize and unify. He placed those developments in the context of Bible prophecy:

We have been prophesying for around 70 years that Eastern Europe would become a vital part of a new European superpower—a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. This prophecy is directly related to the Crimean crisis! The fear you see in Europe because of events in Crimea is going to cause 10 leaders in Europe to unite in a sudden and dramatic way—and in precise accordance with the Bible’s description of that European empire! …

Europe’s new fear of Russia is going to play a major role in hastening the fulfillment of that prophecy!

The people of Europe watched Russia’s annexation of Crimea with dread. Today, as they observe Russia’s intensifying full-scale war on Ukraine and now its rehearsal on their doorstep to use unfathomably powerful nuclear weapons, that fear is intensifying. It is driving the Europeans to unify and militarize.

Learn more: Read “Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Reshaping Europe.”