(Reuters) - Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday, marking the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow will have based such arms outside the country.

Putin made the announcement at a time of growing tensions with the West over the Ukraine war and as some Russian commentators speculate about possible nuclear strikes.

The United States - the world’s other nuclear superpower - reacted cautiously. A senior administration official noted Russia and Belarus had talked about such a deal over the past year, and said there were no signs Moscow planned to use its nuclear weapons.