MINSK, May 11. /TASS-DEFENSE/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on May 10 that Moscow had agreed to help Minsk produce missiles, including one similar to Russia’s Iskander, the state-run Belta news agency reported. “In my presence, the president [Vladimir Putin] instructed [head of Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation] Dmitry Rogozin to immediately provide support so that we would not waste time reinventing the wheel, so that we could tap into the experience of the Russian specialists, who made the Iskander missile,” the head of state said at a government conference to discuss this year’s state defense contracts.
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Iskander-M mobile ballistic missile TEL Transporter Erector Launcher unit in firing position at Armya defense exhibition near Moscow, in August 2018. (Picture source: Army Recognition)

According to Lukashenko, he gave the relevant task to the prime minister to develop promising weapons after the latest meeting with Putin in the Far East. “We’d expressly agreed: Putin, Rogozin, Lukashenko, and other people who were there — people who are involved in missile production in Russia were supposed to take a look at our R&D products,” the Belarusian president said. According to him, Belarus is developing a new missile after all. “The talk is about a very effective missile similar to the Iskander. There was full support,” he added.

Last November, Lukashenko said that he would like to get several battalions of Iskander tactical ballistic missile systems from Russia. At the government conference on May 10, he said that Belarus should rely on domestic arms manufacturers.

MINSK, May 11. /TASS-DEFENSE/. Belarus intends to keep Russian S-400 air defense missile systems and Iskander tactical ballistic missile systems, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a government conference held on May 10 to discuss this year’s state defense contracts.

“We and Russia have agreed that we may retain the S-400 systems that are deployed in Belarus. A system like that will see from Minsk all the way to Berlin… S-400 systems are good hardware… The defense minister and I have agreed that tomorrow he will simply train several groups of guys to operate this equipment,” the state-run Belta news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.

Lukashenko also mentioned plans to buy Iskander tactical ballistic missile systems from Russia. “These are the weapons that we need a lot. We have them today. And then again I’ve reached an agreement with Russians that we are going to buy Iskander systems from them. They will not be removed from Belarus. They can be used to defend our space,” the president said.

According to the president, the weapons the Belarusian army already has allowed ensuring its defensive capacity. “I think those are good weapons for the army. It means that our army will be able to fight and cause unacceptable damage to the enemy… We are realists and we understand that we will be unable to defeat NATO. But we have all these weapons in order to cause damage, particularly to the territories, from which they are going to attack us,” he added.

As Lukashenko said, those are weapons capable of covering the entire territory of Poland and to the Baltic Sea. “Let alone the Baltic Sea countries. And practically Ukraine beyond Kiev. God forbid, I am not hinting at something but I want the shooting distance of the weapons we have to be understood,” he stressed.

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