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Moscow, Minsk Kick Off Relocation of Nuclear Weapons in Belarus

The Russian and Belarusian ministers of defense have signed documents that determine procedures regarding weapons relocation and mechanisms of placing them under the Russian forces’ control on the Belarusian territories. (AFP)
The Russian and Belarusian ministers of defense have signed documents that determine procedures regarding weapons relocation and mechanisms of placing them under the Russian forces’ control on the Belarusian territories. (AFP)
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Moscow, Minsk Kick Off Relocation of Nuclear Weapons in Belarus

The Russian and Belarusian ministers of defense have signed documents that determine procedures regarding weapons relocation and mechanisms of placing them under the Russian forces’ control on the Belarusian territories. (AFP)
The Russian and Belarusian ministers of defense have signed documents that determine procedures regarding weapons relocation and mechanisms of placing them under the Russian forces’ control on the Belarusian territories. (AFP)

Russia and Belarus have finalized the arrangements for relocating some of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Belarusian counterpart, Viktor Khrenin, signed on Thursday documents that determine joint procedures regarding the relocation of weapons and organize the mechanisms of placing them under the Russian forces’ control on Belarusian territories.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed two months ago a decree to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Belarus's Ministry of Defense said the agreement refers to a special storage facility on the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

The two defense ministers discussed the political and military situation as well as the technical and military cooperation between the two ministries.

Control over the weaponry and decision on its use remains with Moscow, Shoigu stressed.

He added that Russia may take “additional measures” in the future “to ensure the security of the Union State and respond to the military-political situation.”

“The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war against our countries,” added the Russian defense minister.

Shoigu arrived in Minsk on Thursday to take part in the meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The participants exchange views on regional challenges and threats, improving the crisis response system, and other joint issues. CSTO includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Shoigu said during the meeting that the decision was made in the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus.

Shoigu said that Iskander-M missiles, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, had been handed to the Belarusian armed forces, and some Su-25 aircraft had been converted for the possible use of nuclear weapons.

"Belarusian servicemen have received the necessary training," Shoigu was quoted as saying by his ministry.

The Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Public Relations Center announced on Thursday that on the eve of May 9, Victory Day, an attempt by Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) to commit sabotage at two nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the Leningrad and Tver regions of Russia was thwarted.

The FSB noted that an attempt was made to blow up over 30 pylons of high-voltage electric power lines which, as plotted by the Ukrainian secret services, would have shut down nuclear reactors, disrupted the regular operations of nuclear facilities, and caused serious economic and reputational damage to the Russian Federation.

Moreover, six drones were downed Wednesday night in Russian-annexed Crimea.

The Russian-backed head of Crimea's administration said on Thursday that air defenses had downed six drones overnight in different areas of the region.

There were no casualties, Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.

Moreover, Russia's Wagner group has started moving its forces out of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday.

Prigozhin announced the capture of Bakhmut, adding that his fighters would pull out by June 1.

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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.