How Belarus helps Ukraine destroy militias
Moscow - Kyiv, April 6 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Russian military experts confirmed "NG"that Ukrainian military aircraft and helicopters are being repaired in Belarus. In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine actively use the Belarusian Skif ATGMs and purchase electrical equipment, electronic warfare systems, optical guidance systems, and engines for special equipment in Minsk.
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The Ukrainian website “Khvilya” recently published an article about the allegedly active participation of official Minsk in the rearmament of the Ukrainian army. According to Khvili, Ukrainian military aircraft and helicopters are repaired and restored at Belarusian aircraft repair plants (in Baranovichi and near Orshansk). In addition, they say, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are actively using the Skif joint anti-tank missile systems (ATGM), and also purchasing electrical equipment, electronic warfare systems, sights and other optical guidance systems, engines for special equipment, etc. The contract amounts amount to several tens of millions of dollars, which, according to Khvili, Ukraine pays to Minsk for military products and services provided. The reader is led to the idea that “official Minsk is making money from the Ukrainian crisis and is opposing itself to the policy of Russia, which condemns the recent punitive actions of the Kyiv authorities in the Donbass.”
Even under Yanukovych, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko gave the go-ahead for the sale of 57% of the shares of the Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant (ARZ) to the Ukrainian association Motor Sich. Belarusian and Russian media back in July 2014, that is, when the war in Donbass was just beginning, actively discussed information that the Orsha ARZ began to modernize Ukrainian military helicopters.
The production of the joint Skif ATGM, which began back in 2005, is also traditional for the Belarusian-Ukrainian rifle business. Ukrainian media have repeatedly reported that “Scythians” are successfully used in operations against militias in the Donbass.
Independent military expert Colonel Musa Khamzatov believes that “Belarus is not yet capable of large-scale assistance in the rearmament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since it specializes only in a limited range of military products.” Although, in his opinion, one can believe in the information that has appeared that Belarusian ARZs have repaired and modernized more than a dozen MiG-29 military aircraft, as well as several units of Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters. “According to media reports, Belarus demonstrated its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which showed good tactical and technical characteristics. It can be assumed that if Kyiv and Minsk are mutually interested, this product could also enter the Ukrainian army,” the expert believes.
In turn, military expert Lieutenant General Yuri Netkachev does not rule out that over time, if a political decision is made in Minsk, “the volume of military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and Belarus, especially in the field of air force modernization and UAV procurement, may increase significantly, since the IMF has allocated multi-billion dollar aid to the Poroshenko regime, which can be used for military purposes.” Netkachev emphasizes that, despite the fact that Moscow and Minsk are building a Union State, the leadership of Belarus has its own point of view on the events taking place in Ukraine, different from the position of the Kremlin.
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