While his warnings of spiraling toward nuclear catastrophe are nothing new, his call for a truce with no preconditions is something unusual. He urged in the televised state-of-the-nation address, "We must stop now, before an escalation begins. I'll take the risk of suggesting an end of hostilities... a declaration of a truce."

"All territorial, reconstruction, security and other issues can and should be settled at the negotiation table, without preconditions," added Lukashenko.

Last weekend, Russia's Vladimir Putin announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus for the first time since the war in Ukraine began. Lukashenko addressed this, saying the step is necessary due to "unprecedented" Western pressure on Belarus.

That's when the Belarusian strongman went further, and introduced the possibility of intercontinental nuclear missiles, which would indeed be taken as a huge escalation by Europe and the US.

"Putin and I will decide and introduce here, if necessary, strategic weapons, and they must understand this, the scoundrels abroad, who today are trying to blow us up from inside and outside," he said. "We will stop at nothing to protect our countries, our state and their peoples."