Contents tagged with Belarus

  • Belarus has created an unmanned attack helicopter

    At the MILEX-2017 exhibition, Belarus presented for the first time a reconnaissance and attack unmanned helicopter capable of carrying missile weapons, RIA Novosti reported.

    The drone is called INDELA-I.N. SKY. It was developed by the Belarusian KB INDELA LLC. The machine’s takeoff weight is 150 kilograms. It is armed with 90 mm thermobaric rockets.

    The unmanned vehicle is capable of hitting enemy armored vehicles and it is able to monitor the terrain. It has already been factory-tested. …

  • Estonian Defense Minister: Russian forces may remain in Belarus after Zapad-2017 military exercises

    Estonian Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna believes that Russian forces may remain in Belarus after September’s “Zapad 2017” exercises.

    According to Tsahkna, Estonia and other NATO countries possess intelligence data according to which the Russian forces may remain in Belarus after completing the exercises. He added that more than 4000 train cars will be used to transport troops and equipment from Russia to Belarus, which also indicates the possibility of a military base being deployed.

    “For …

  • Lukashenko promises Poroshenko that nobody will be able to draw Belarus into a war against Ukraine

    Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has assured Petro Poroshenko that nobody will be able to draw Belarus into a war against Ukraine.

    Poroshenko made a statement to this effect during a joint address in Chernobyl, transmitted by the TV channel 112 Ukraine.

    “It’s important for us, and I am sure of it, that the Ukraine-Belarus border has been, is and will always be a border of friendship, a border of good neighborly relations, a border of our reliable partnership, I emphasize, a border of …

  • Belarus settles with Russia for gas

    Belarus has paid in full an overdue amount of $726.2 million to the Russian company Gazprom for delivery of gas in 2016-2017, as reported in Gazprom’s press release.

    It was noted that since the beginning of last year, Belarusian consumers have been underpaying the Russian gas company Gazprom Transgaz Belarus, possibly because the price was not calculated according to the formula stipulated in the contract, but from the gas prices in Europe, which at that time fell drastically. In response, …

  • Russia to give Belarus $1 billion loan

    Russia will provide Belarus with a loan amounting to $1 billion “on good terms”.

    According to Interfax-Zapad, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko made a statement to this effect in a broadcast of the local TV channel “ONT” on Sunday.

    He announced that Belarus is expecting the allocation of the third and fourth tranches of the loan from the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD). “The third and fourth tranches, each for $300 million, in total $600 for the year, …

  • Lukashenko: Russia is not ready to build a Union with Belarus

    Russia is not ready to build a "real" Union State with Belarus. This was stated by the Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in an interview with television channel MIR.

    "We are not ready for this today; and not so much Belarusians, as Russians, Russian leaders," he said.

    In his opinion, Russia and Belarus should have earlier held a referendum and established common legislation, including a Constitution, but did not do so "in due time". Instead, they "chose certain issues and began to …

  • Ukrainian Defense Ministry concerned over Belarus' and Russia's plan to hold military exercises later this year

    The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is concerned about the impending Russian-Belarusian Armed Forces Zapad-2017 joint military exercise, as stated by the First Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine, Ivan Rusnak, during a meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller.

    "The situation in the area of the antiterrorist operation [the Donbas] remains tense. In addition, the strategic exercises of the Russian and Belarusian armed forces Zapad-2017, which will be held this autumn, are cause …

  • Russia and Belarus resolve year-long disagreement

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Belarus have resolved their gas-related disputes.

    The disagreement between Russia and Belarus about gas shipments started in 2016. Minsk said that it had made its own price calculations for the gas and reached the conclusion that its price was roughly twice as high as it should be, arguing that a fair price would be $73 per cubic meter.

    “We have found a scheme in which we keep our approaches, but bring together our positions on the cost,” …

  • Belarus refuses to pay Russia $700 million gas debt

    Belarus will neither acknowledge nor pay a “debt” of $700 million for gas supplies, according to the press secretary of the Prime Minister of Belarus, Vladislav Sychevich.

    According to Sychevich, all statements by Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak about the existence of such a debt are ineffectual.

    "Regarding the statements of the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak about the unwillingness of Belarus to repay Russia the so-called debt for gas, Belarus does …

  • Russian ambassador names terms for establishing military base in Belarus

    Russia cannot place its military base in Belarusian territory because there is no intergovernmental agreement. Alexander Surikov, Russian ambassador to Belarus, made a statement to this effect at a press conference in Minsk, TASS news agency reports.

    There is “not yet” any agreement, and no base can be deployed without one, the ambassador added. He noted that “there was never” any question of deploying a military base in Belarus.

    When speaking about the upcoming joint military exercises of …