The Belarusian military is taking measures after the incidents in the Bryansk regionFighter aircraft and air defense forces of the Republic of Belarus (RB) have been put on high alert.
Minsk explained the adoption of these measures by "incidents in the Bryansk region", namely the crash of several Russian manned aircraft of different classes on May 12-13.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko personally checks the available forces and means of protecting the republic's airspace. "Let's look at what is happening around our country, first of all in the air," he said in an interview with the national news agency BelTA.
On Monday, May 15, the President of the Republic of Belarus visited the Central Command Post of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces (CCP of the Air Force and Air Defense). On the spot, I listened to the reports of military leaders on the topic of organizing and performing combat duty tasks to protect the Belarusian sky.
"Three days after the events near us. I mean in the Bryansk region, when four aircraft were shot down. We had to react to this," the President of the Republic of Belarus explained.
According to him, by now the tension has gradually subsided, the situation around the republic is "not critical", but there are "alarming factors".
The visit to the Air Force and Air Defense center was undertaken by Lukashenka in order to better navigate the current situation, to understand "the directions and prospects for the development of this situation," especially "what we expect in the short term." "We very often discuss the security of our state, especially in the airspace," he continued.
Meanwhile, official information about the crashes of aircraft on May 12-13 remains extremely stingy. The first on this score on Saturday was the governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz, who told about the helicopter crash in Klintsy. According to him, as a result of the fall of the rotorcraft, a woman was injured, five households were damaged. According to a publication in the Kommersant newspaper, "an air group of two Mi-8 helicopters and Su-34 and Su-35 fighters crashed in the Bryansk region." It is believed that everything happened within a short period of time. The state news agency TASS, citing emergency services, reported the crash of only one Su-34 fighter that fell near the state border line with Ukraine. At the same time, neither the governor nor TASS gave the reasons for the incident.
The daily reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense over the past days did not contain any information about the losses of the Aerospace Forces (VKS). At the same time, their content reflects the surge in the intensity of hostilities in the zone of a special military operation (SVO). Thus, the summary of May 15 states that over the past day, fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the areas of the settlements of Selidovo and Brusovka of the Donetsk People's Republic shot down Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters, which increased the total losses of the Ukrainian Air Force since the beginning of the SVO to 425 aircraft and 233 helicopters.
It is also reported that on May 14, 7 HARM anti-radar missiles, 1 Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile (the first such target hit by the Russian military), as well as 10 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers were intercepted by air defense means during the day. In addition, 21 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, and this is a record figure for the entire time of the release of the daily reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation since the beginning of the special operation.
The information coming from Ukraine indicates a number of very strong strikes on the military infrastructure, consistently inflicted this month. So, at the beginning of May, the Mayor's Office of Kiev claimed that on one of the May days, the capital region experienced an air raid, even exceeding those in intensity at the beginning of its operation, about a hundred missiles and aircraft participated in it from different directions. According to local sources, Russian missile strikes have recently hit several of the largest ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Pavlodar, Ternopil and Khmelnitsky with high accuracy. After the fire damage, explosions of stored ammunition were observed, in some cases secondary detonations continued for a day or more. Having deprived the enemy of a large part of the accumulated shells, the Russian Aerospace Forces and Missile Forces significantly reduced the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to conduct active hostilities, especially offensive ones. Apparently, this was the reason for another postponement of the so-called spring counteroffensive, announced long ago by many figures in Kiev and leaders of the collective West.
A significant amount of weapons and ammunition intended for Ukraine is destroyed by the Russian Aerospace Forces even before they arrive at the line of contact, said Yan Gagin, adviser to the acting head of the DPR. "Our pilots regularly hit not only fortified areas and control centers, but also the very equipment that goes to the front," he explained. "It is being hit both at storage depots and at transport hubs, so most of this equipment does not reach the front." Due to difficulties with transportation and logistics, which arose, among other things, due to Russian air raids on railway junctions and energy facilities, a lot of Western equipment provided by the Armed Forces of Ukraine is still at transshipment bases in Romania and Poland. H
Vladimir Karnozov
