{"id":11358,"date":"2022-02-20T03:39:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T00:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-hopes-west-will-reckon-with-him-if-belarus-hosts-russian-missiles\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-hopes-west-will-reckon-with-him-if-belarus-hosts-russian-missiles","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11358\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka\u0161enka hopes West will reckon with him if Belarus hosts Russian missiles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka seeks to benefit from his allegiance to a military alliance with Russia, hoping to acquire weapons at lower prices or free of charge. He also expects the West to take him seriously. <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cOur army is at the forefront; it should possess state-of-the-art equipment. We either buy it, or the Russians will supply it to us at their own expense because we have a common army,\u201d he said on February 17 after watching Belarusian and Russian troops train at the Asipovi\u010dy ground in the Mahilio\u016d region.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Wants Iskander missiles<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka said that he will ask Russia to set up a center for training Belarusian troops in operating Russian-made Iskander (NATO reporting name: SS-26 Stone) missiles. He said Belarus plans to buy Iskander missiles from Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Belarus and Russia established three training centers for missile operators and pilots last year. Russia provided an S-400 missile battalion for a training center based near Hrodna and Su-30SM fighters for training pilots. The fighters are based at the Baranavi\u010dy airfield in the Brest region.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Minsk has long eyed Iskander missiles but could not afford the purchase. About a decade ago, Belarus teamed up with Chinese engineers to design the Polonez missile system with characteristics similar to the Iskander\u2019s.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka hopes to take advantage of Russia-Ukraine tension to buy Iskander missiles cheaper or receive the system free of charge.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Minsk, Moscow can use legal loophole<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Belarus can acquire an export version of Iskander with a range of 50 to 280 kilometers, whereas Iskander M currently in service with the Russian Armed Forces has a range of up to 500 kilometers, Aliaskandr Aliesin, a Minsk-based defense analyst, told <span>BPN<\/span>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Russia can provide the Iskander M for the would-be training center because joint training facilities are not subject to restrictions imposed by international treaties, he noted.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The center may be based in Slabodka, Pru\u017eany district, which used to host Oka (SS-23 Spider) missiles in the Soviet times, Aliesin said. Iskander M missiles could attack big parts of Poland, including Warsaw, and Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cWith a range of 500 kilometers, the missile can fly damn too far from the Belarusian balcony. That would be a sharp knife for Poland and Ukraine,\u201d Aliesin said.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Russian ammo<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka said that Russian troops might leave some of their ammunition behind \u201cin order not to carry it back and forth.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Aliesin said that the Russians may leave rockets for multiple rocket launch systems because Belarus cannot afford to buy ammunition and still relies on expired Soviet supplies.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Dependence on Moscow<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t If Belarus deploys Iskander missiles to a training center it will be seen as a greater threat by the West. \u201cLuka\u0161enka seeks to make himself important in the eyes of the West. He is trying to prove that he is not an outcast but is someone to be reckoned with,&#8221; Aliesin said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On the other hand, increased Russian military presence diminishes his importance in the eyes of the West, which perceives him as a Russian puppet. He cannot change that reputation no matter how hard he tries to play up his dealings with Vladimir Putin.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka seeks to benefit from his allegiance to a military alliance with Russia, hoping to acquire weapons at lower prices or free of charge. He also expects the West to take him seriously. \u201cOur army is at the forefront; it should possess state-of-the-art equipment. We either buy it, or the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11358","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Luka\u0161enka hopes West will reckon with him if Belarus hosts Russian missiles | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka seeks to benefit from his allegiance to a military alliance with Russia, hoping to acquire weapons at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11358\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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