The leader of Belarus said Tuesday he has received nuclear weapons from Russia and won’t hesitate to use them if his nation’s security is at stake. President Alexander Lukashenko made the remarks in an interview with a Russian state TV channel on Tuesday evening.

President Alexander Lukashenko: “We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia, both that are three times more powerful than the ones used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There, more than 80,000 people died instantly, 250,000 overall. That’s from one strike. And this one is three times more powerful. I don’t know. Up to a million people would die immediately if, God forbid, this weapon were used.”

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on world leaders to respond to Russia’s first deployment of tactical nuclear weapons outside of its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. She wrote on social media, “It creates a serious threat to regional security & sets us on a dangerous path for nuclear escalation. The world must show Lukashenka & Putin that it won’t give in to nuclear blackmail.”