Vladimir Putin is about to move nuclear weapons closer to the European Union's border just weeks after deploying his so-called 'unstoppable' Oreshnik missile system to Belarus, the country's exiled opposition leader has warned.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Alexander Lukashenko's regime was deepening Russia's military footprint in Belarus and preparing for further escalation in the war in Ukraine.
'We see how on Belarusian territory, Mr Lukashenko's regime intensifies the presence of Russia. They are about to deploy nuclear weapons [to Belarus], Russian missiles,' said Tsikhanouskaya.
'So it looks like they're preparing for escalation,' she told The Telegraph.
Her warning comes after Russia's defence ministry in December released footage it said showed a nuclear capable Oreshnik missile system being put on combat duty at an airbase in eastern Belarus.
Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Putin, said 10 Oreshnik systems would be stationed in the country.
The Oreshnik is an intermediate range, nuclear capable hypersonic ballistic missile system.
Experts say it can reach the UK within eight minutes. Although it can carry nuclear warheads, it has so far only been deployed with conventional payloads.
A deployment like this would drastically reduce the time it would take for Russia to strike into EU territory.
Analysts in the west interpreted the release of the footage as a show of power intended to intimidate Ukraine and its neighbours while signalling to a domestic audience that Russia was prepared to escalate further.
Last week, satellite imagery suggested Russia may be deploying the Oreshnik at a military installation site near Krychau, a town in eastern Belarus close to the Russian border.
Images of the abandoned airfield show several new buildings at the site as well as railway tracks and a station completely rebuilt.
The Kremlin has already tested non-nuclear Oreshniks in Ukraine. Just last month, Russia unleashed the missile on Lviv, a Ukrainian city about 40 miles from the Polish border.
Tsikhanouskaya said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom she met recently, was aware of the risks posed by the build-up in Belarus.
'This escalation might affect not only Ukraine but also European countries. So we have to put more attention on what is happening in Belarus,' she said.
She also warned that Belarus was playing a wider role in supporting Moscow's war effort, estimating there were 'about 300 Belarusian enterprises' aiding Russia's military production.
However, Donald Trump's former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker questioned the strategic significance of moving nuclear weapons into Belarus.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: 'First off, the command and control of Russian nuclear weapons remains Russian command and control.'
'So if they're in Russia, or if they're a few hundred kilometres further forward in Belarus, it doesn't really matter - they're nuclear weapons, and they're under Russian command and control, and they're pointed at all of us.'
He cautioned against alarm that this was a new threat, adding: 'I think they may have exercised it, but I think there's a lot more nuance about this.'
Tsikhanouskaya warned that Belarus's fate was closely tied to that of Ukraine and that failure by the democratic world to help Kyiv win the war would embolden the Russian president.
'If the democratic world will not help Ukrainians enough for them to win this war, it will embolden Putin and he will not stop where he is,' she said, listing Moldova, Armenia and Georgia.
'All the borders will become negotiable,' she said. 'And that's why, if Ukraine will not win this war, we can forget about changes in Belarus for decades because it will settle the status quo in our country.'