Belarus expecting deliveries of Russian air defense systems
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Minsk's armed forces are to be armed with weapons supplied by Russia as Moscow further backs its ally.
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In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, a view of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems in position during a military exercise, in Siberia, Russia (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)
Belarus is set to receive Russia's 9K720 Iskander guided missile systems and the S-400 Triumf air defense systems, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense said on Friday.
"The defense minister (Viktor Khrenin) has announced the incoming delivery of new equipment, which includes the [Russian-made] Iskander guided missile systems and the S-400 air defense systems," the defense ministry said on Telegram.
"The demonstration of the unmanned combat systems will take place in October," Minsk added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin informed his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, that he was ready to modernize Belarus's fleet of Su-25 attack aircraft with complexes capable of carrying various types of weapons.
Putin also pledged to supply Minsk with Iskander-M nuclear-capable ballistic missile systems "over the next few months."
Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said Tuesday that his country could not turn a blind eye to the increasing militarization of its Western neighbors, as there is concrete evidence that NATO countries are preparing their infrastructure and their troops for war.
Under the guise of an imaginary threat from the East, NATO and West neighboring Belarus are not just militarizing, but also preparing for war, Khrenin said.
NATO has ramped up its presence by planting battle groups in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
Washington blared its sirens over Russia's pledges, with a senior US Defense Department official saying his country took "seriously" Russia's alleged threat to use nuclear weapons. He also heavily criticized Putin for saying he would deploy nuclear missiles in Belarus.
However, a close ally of Washington's, Poland, said earlier in the week that it had asked the US to deploy nuclear weapons on its territories, and the White House was quick to deny ever having received such a request.
US Department of State spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday that his country was not planning on deploying nuclear arms on the territories of NATO member states that became part of the alliance after 1997.
The lack of nuclear weapons in Poland, as per Polish President Andrzej Duda, is a "problem" for Warsaw, opening the door for the United States to deploy nuclear weapons in his country.
Simultaneously, Duda said he believed that Poland could become a partner in the Nuclear Sharing program, under which European NATO countries host and store US nuclear weapons. The NATO member states that have nuclear arms under the program in question are Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
