Moscow/Minsk. May 28. INTERFAX-AVN - Another S-400 Triumph air defense system has arrived from Russia to Belarus, the press service of the republic's Defense Ministry reported on Sunday. "The next set of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system has arrived in the Republic of Belarus.
In the near future, the complex will go on combat duty," the message says.
It is reported that the delivery was carried out within the framework of military and military-technical cooperation between Belarus and the Russian Federation.
"Belarusian anti-aircraft gunners have completed a full course of training for the combat use of the system at the training grounds of Russia. The servicemen are ready to put their knowledge and skills into practice to ensure the military security of Belarus and the Union State as a whole," the Belarusian military department stressed.
"Belarus continues to implement measures to increase the combat potential of the regional grouping of troops (forces), including equipping formations and military units of the Armed Forces with new modern weapons," the Defense Ministry noted.
According to official information, the basic structure of the S-400 system, in addition to anti-aircraft missiles, includes a control point, radar facilities, launchers, and a technical support complex.
On December 19, 2022, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced that Moscow had supplied Minsk with the S-400 Triumph long-range air defense system and the Iskander tactical missile system.
According to official data, the S-400 system (Almaz-Antey Concern of East Kazakhstan Region) is designed to destroy strategic and tactical aircraft, ballistic missiles, hypersonic targets and other means of air attack.
The Russian military stated that it takes less than five minutes to deploy the S-400 into combat position.
At the end of March this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an agreement with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in the republic. According to the President of the Russian Federation, the Iskander missile system, which can be a carrier of tactical nuclear weapons, has been transferred to Belarus. "From April 3, we will start training crews, and on July 1 we will finish the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. Everything that the President of Belarus asked, the questions he raised in this regard, are being implemented, and all our agreements will take place in the very near future," Putin said at the time.
On April 14, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that it had completed training of the Belarusian military in the operation of Su-25 attack aircraft. According to the report, new ways of using modern aviation weapons, including special (nuclear) ammunition, were mastered in the classroom.
On May 25, in Minsk, the heads of the military departments of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu and Belarus Viktor Khrenin signed documents defining the procedure for keeping Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in a special storage facility on Belarusian territory.
"Russia does not transfer nuclear weapons to the Republic of Belarus: control over them and the decision to use them remains with the Russian side," Shoigu said on May 25 in Minsk.