See how Putin defended tactical nuclear weapons move

Now, against the backdrop of the Kremlin's military struggles in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin says Russia will place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Ukraine's northern neighbor. Belarus borders both Ukraine and NATO ally Poland. It hasn't had a nuclear arsenal since the end of the Cold War, but that could change in just a few months. Here's how Putin defended the move in an interview with Russian media. First of all, the United States has done it for decades. They have placed their tactical nuclear weapons in their ally countries, NATO countries, in six countries to be exact, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and Greece. And we had an agreement with Lukashenko as allies do the same.

Then you've been monitoring reaction there in Ukraine. What have you been seeing? Well, what we see is that the Ukrainians clearly feel that the temperature has been raised by President Putin's statement regarding the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons sometime down the line in Belarus. On the other hand, they are not pressing the panic button. We did see a statement from Olexi Danilov, who's a senior advisor to President Vladimir Zelensky. He said, and I'm reading here, Putin's statement about placing nuclear weapons in Belarus a step towards internal destabilization of the country maximizes the level of negative perception and public rejection of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society. The Kremlin, he concluded, took Belarus as a nuclear hostage. I think if you read between the lines here, what the Ukrainians are saying, that Lukashenko, whose hold on power just a few years ago was looking rather shaky, may be weakening his domestic position by allowing Russia at some point to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.

And as Matthew just mentioned, the fact that this means more Russian troops in Belarus, a country which did allow the Russians to use their territory to invade Ukraine just over a year ago. Kim? All right. And then Ben, from the battlefront now, what's the latest, particularly in the ongoing battle for Bakhmut? Well, the situation there continues to be precarious. CNN was on the phone with a senior fish spokesman for Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine. He said that the Russians in the area around Bakhmut do not seem to be suffering from a shortage of artillery shells, that the shelling of that city continues to be intense. He says that there are around 4,000 civilians incredibly still inside what's left of that city. Now, every day we're seeing that the Russians have advanced in some areas.

The Ukrainians claiming that they're pushing back in others. What's most important is that there is one last road allowing for Ukrainian forces to go in and out of the city, to bring supplies and whatnot. That road continues to be quite dangerous. And if at some point the Russians do manage to either cut that road or make it impassable because of fire, that could spell the end of the Ukrainian military presence in Bakhmut. Kim?.