"It seems pretty irresponsible of a national leader to talk about the employment of nuclear weapons and to do so in a generally cavalier fashion," the official said during a press briefing. "In terms of my concerns… the way that that statement read from Putin was ‘hey, we're gonna give them [Belarus] Iskanders, you know, and, oh, by the way, they can hold nuclear weapons.’"
The United States is certainly taking the statement seriously and has taken the threat seriously from the very beginning, the official said.
The US strategic forces are always monitoring the situation regarding potential nuclear threats, the official added.
On Saturday, Putin said during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that Russia is ready to modernize Belarus's fleet of Su-25 attack aircraft and would supply the country with Iskander-M nuclear-capable ballistic missile systems over the next several months.