Russia to supply armored personnel carriers and combat helicopters to Belarus
Belarus will soon receive from Russia a batch of armored personnel carriers and several Mi-35M attack helicopters, Russian newspaper Vedomosti reports, citing the Belarusian Defense Ministry.
According to the newspaper, the relevant contracts were signed at the international military-technical forum "Army-2020."
"During the forum, a number of mutually beneficial contracts (...) were signed as part of the work done over the last year. The main ones are a contract for the supply of two battalion kits of BTR-82A armored personnel vehicles manufactured by Arzamas Machinery Plant and a contract for the first batch of four Mi-35M helicopters," the statement reads.
Earlier, Alexander Lukashenko ordered the Belarusian troops stationed on the country's western borders to be put in full combat readiness state. According to Lukashenko, the "internal problems" of Belarus are "coordinated from the outside."
Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, for his part, stated that "in Poland, 18 NATO fighter jets are ready to take off to topple Lukashenko." He also stressed that Western countries intend to subvert the Belarus military's actions to stabilize the situation in the country.
"In the current situation, the actions of the power bloc of the Republic of Belarus to stabilize the situation can be presented as genocide of their own people and used as a pretext for changing the political course by force," he said.
The day before, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said that the Belarusian air defense forces destroyed a cluster of balloons "with anti-state symbols" launched from the territory of Lithuania.