MINSK - The media fuss about the presumed deployment of a Russian airbase in Belarus has a political flavor and does not reflect the real state of affairs, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at an operative conference of the Armed Forces command in Minsk on Oct. 31.
“In my opinion, the media fuss has a purely political nature,” the state-run news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Neither Minsk nor Moscow need to deploy a Russian airbase in the republic from the military point of view because air defense forces of the Russian component can perfectly fulfill their tasks in peacetime, the president said. In addition, Belarusian Mikoyan MiG-29 crews and Russian Sukhoi Su-27s are daily present at the Baranovichi airfield.
“They are coping with the task of protecting the airspace, in particular, for defense of the Russian Federation,” Lukashenko said.
The joint regional group of forces will be used if “a military aggression is unleashed against Belarus and, therefore, against Russia,” he said.
“This means that in addition to our Armed Forces, according to the plan which is not a secret, large forces of the Russian army, including a substantial number of Russian aircraft, will be relocated to our country. But that will happen in case of a conflict or a looming conflict,” Lukashenko said.
Republican airfields are serviceable and are ready to receive hundreds of planes, including those of Russia, to defend both countries, he said.
