{"id":521221,"date":"2026-02-26T22:25:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=521221"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:46:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T08:46:55","slug":"statkevich-launches-telegram-channel-and-warns-of-nuclear-retaliation-against-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/statkevich-launches-telegram-channel-and-warns-of-nuclear-retaliation-against-belarus","title":{"rendered":"Statkevich Launches Telegram Channel and Warns of Nuclear Retaliation Against Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><b>Mikalai Statkevich<\/b> has launched a Telegram channel and published an extensive analytical text in Belarusian and English in which he advances the thesis that Russia is deliberately turning Belarus into a nuclear target.<\/p>\n<p>In his article <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/statkevichm\/10\">\u201cApocalypse Tomorrow. Death Zone on the \u2018Balcony,\u2019\u201d<\/a> Statkevich argues that decision-making mechanisms in the Kremlin are based on propaganda stereotypes and exclude the participation of independent experts. In particular, he notes that the belief in the existence of a \u201ctriune Russian people\u201d led to a miscalculation of Ukrainians\u2019 reaction to the invasion. According to him, the Kremlin is making the same mistake with regard to Belarusians.<\/p>\n<p>In the politician\u2019s view, within such a system the decision to launch a war, including one involving nuclear weapons, is highly probable, and the risk of Russia unleashing a war with the West is also significant.<\/p>\n<p>Statkevich explains the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, including Iskander missiles and the Oreshnik system, by the following Kremlin logic: to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Europe from Belarusian territory, calculating that Western countries would prefer to retaliate against Belarus rather than against Russia with its strategic nuclear arsenal. This, he argues, would allow Moscow to preserve its own territory intact.<\/p>\n<p>Statkevich calls on Belarusians, regardless of their political views, to unite in order to prevent this scenario from being realised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mikalai Statkevich has launched a Telegram channel and published an extensive analytical text in Belarusian and English in which he advances the thesis that Russia is deliberately turning Belarus into a nuclear target. In his article \u201cApocalypse Tomorrow. Death Zone on the \u2018Balcony,\u2019\u201d Statkevich argues that decision-making mechanisms in the Kremlin are based on propaganda [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":519136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/69a15a045d5e2.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Statkevich Launches Telegram Channel and Warns of Nuclear Retaliation Against Belarus"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}