Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, has branded the decision to withdraw strategic nuclear weapons from the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union a mistake. Source: Belarusian regime-aligned news outlet BetTA; Belaruski Hajun, an independent Belarusian military monitoring media outlet Quote from Lukashenko: "If I were to make a decision at that time, we would never have withdrawn strategic nuclear weapons from the territory of Belarus.