Vladimir Putin’s closest ally raised the spectre of an impending nuclear armageddon after revealing his country now possessed “several dozen” Russian nukes.

The shocking news has prompted Nato to scramble to put its nuclear forces on full alert, after Belarus’ murderous tyrant warned a major confrontation with the West could end in an atomic “apocalypse”.

Lukashenko made his chilling threat on Friday, according to the Belarusian state media outlet Belta.

The Belarus President said: “Nuclear deterrence – those who will push us towards it should know about it and have a rational look at the straightforward consequences of their ill-considered decisions, to put it mildly.”

Putin and his ally reached an agreement last year to station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory in a highly provocative move.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use on the battlefield and have a low yield compared with much more powerful atomic warheads fitted to long-range missiles.

In December of last year, the Belarus dictator confirmed that shipments of the lethal weapons had already reached the country in October.

Russia has also transferred Iskander missiles to the territory of its western neighbour.

The Islanders are road-mobile short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) with a range of up to 500 km and which can be armed with nuclear warheads.

Lukashenko has said that hosting Russian nuclear weapons in his country is meant to deter aggression by Poland, a NATO member.

Earlier this week Poland’s President Andrzej Duda responded to the developments in Belarus by declaring Warsaw was ready to host Nato nukes on its territory to counter the threat posed by its eastern neighbour.

Minsk appears to be attempting to raise tensions with the West after insinuating that a Nato country allowed its territory to be used for a drone attack on Belarus.

The head of the KGB in Belarus told delegates at a government conference last week that security forces had prevented UAV strikes on Minsk and surrounding areas from Lithuania.

Ivan Tertel told a session of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly that security agencies recently carried out operations “which made it possible to prevent attacks by combat drones from the territory of Lithuania on objects in Minsk and its suburbs.”

The claim has been categorically denied and dismissed as nonsense by Vilnius.

Tertel also alleged that both Poland and Lithuania were letting radicals in their countries build drones to attack Belarus, without providing a shred of evidence.