Belarus to take delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Moscow

Following a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus will take delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Moscow.

As reported by the press service of the Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, on Sunday, February 5, he held a telephone conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The call was devoted mainly to the continued cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the Union State Treaty it said.

Lukashenko’s office confirmed that three blocks of issues were discussed. The first one concerned bilateral relations. “The presidents discussed a common agenda for interaction in the economy, politics, and security issues. In particular, they talked about further actions within the framework of the Union State to ensure the security of Belarus and Russia”, it detailed.

The second block was related to the issues of import substitution and anti-sanctions interaction. Putin and Lukashenko had previously instructed their respective governments to prepare solutions in these areas. In addition, the presidents agreed to decide on the date of the next personal meeting.

Thirdly, preparations for the meeting of the Supreme State Council – the main body of the Union State, which includes presidents, prime ministers, and heads of the parliaments of Russia and Belarus – were discussed.

The event was tentatively scheduled for April-May 2023, by which time the parties will formalise the existing agreements and sign the relevant documents.

Almost immediately after reports of a telephone conversation between the two presidents, Andrei Lukyanovich, the head of the Air Force and Air Defence of Belarus, announced that Minsk would receive Mi-35M helicopters from Moscow.

Speaking on the STV channel, he revealed: “In the near future we will receive Mi-35M helicopters for aviation. Delivery and purchase of SU-30SM aircraft are also planned for this year. For our radio engineering troops, we will receive Rosa of Belarusian production low-altitude radar systems, as well as Vostok radar stations”.

According to Lukyanovich, the first four helicopters will arrive at the airfields by April. Belarusian pilots have already been trained to use the new technology and will operate the helicopters on their own. He added that the coordination of the regional grouping of forces (RGV) of Belarus and Russia will continue to ensure the security of the Union State.

At the end of 1999, Moscow and Minsk signed an agreement on the creation of the Union State. It implied the formation of a single economic, foreign policy, budgetary and tax space, as well as the unification of the energy, transport, and customs systems of both countries.

The actions of the two countries within the framework of this agreement have intensified since 2019. In 2021, the Russian government presented 28 union programs for integration with Belarus, which were approved at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State.

By July last year, the countries were supposed to agree on the principles of the single gas market, but this did not happen due to the start of the military operation in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions from the West.

At the end of December 2022, Lukashenko announced that the deadlines for the formation of a united gas market had been missed. In January, he said that about 70 per cent of the measures to implement the programs of the Union State had already been completed. However, some important ones were lagging behind.

“They reported to me that our Russian partners are moving slowly on a number of issues. But I always say: there is no one person to blame, and the other is good. Somewhere we are not working too hard”, said the Belarusian president.

In particular, the head of state drew attention to the fact that Minsk is not seeing any progress in three areas – energy, industry, and transport, as reported by gazeta.ru.

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