Lukashenko Says Belarus Will Buy $1 Billion Worth of Russian Weapons, Later Says S-400 Systems Will Be Deployed on Ukraine Border

In his view, someone is “fanning” the situation in Belarus from the border with Ukraine.

Self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus will “buy” weapons worth $1 billion from the Russian Federation.

Some time later, he said these weapons would include S-400 air defense missile systems and would be deployed along the entire border with Ukraine.

Arms purchase

During a visit to the large-scale Russian-Belarusian military exercises “Zapad-2021”,  said that Belarus plans to purchase Russian weapons worth more than $1 billion. 

He said that during talks in the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he paid much attention to defense and security issues, and they discussed prospects for supplying C-400 systems to Belarus.

Lukashenko noted that the first stage of the joint Zapad-2021 exercises had ended.  On the occasion of the end of the training for territorial troops servicemen, he spoke of some “hybrid aggression” from Western countries.

“This is one of the most important events in preparing the armed forces, held against the backdrop of ongoing hybrid aggression from the West against Belarus and Russia. We see new risks and challenges in the west of the Union State (Belarus and Russia – ed.), and a worsening situation at the borders of CSTO member states,” said the self-proclaimed President of Belarus.

On deploying weapons on the border with Ukraine

Shortly afterward, Lukashenko announced plans to deploy Russian C-400 air defense missile systems on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.

At the meeting, Lukashenko reported to Putin that he had successfully “blocked” Belarus’s western borders with Lithuania and Poland with S-300 missile systems, and also shared his view that someone continues to “fan” the situation in Belarus from the border with Ukraine.

Despite the lack of logic and any facts whatsoever on this matter, Lukashenko nonetheless decided to deploy Russian S-400 air defense systems on the border with Ukraine.

Alexander Lukashenko
self-proclaimed President of Belarus

Among other things, I reminded him (Putin – ed.) once again about the S-400 and told him where we want to deploy these systems. Thank God, the western perimeter is now fully covered by S-300 systems. But, as you know, we have also added a southern direction. The Belarusian generals and the Russians and I discussed this topic. They are starting to fan the situation from the south. We must prepare – there are 1,200 km of border with Ukraine, so we will have to close this perimeter too. And we were just talking about how much we need the S-400s. And he (Putin – ed.) gave the defense minister an instruction to work through these issues with our side so that these systems could be supplied to us.

According to him, he and Putin agreed on a list of weapons that Belarus will receive by 2025.

It includes about ten aircraft, some of which Belarus has already received, and several dozen helicopters. “This shows that both we and Russia take the western direction very seriously, where we directly border NATO troops,” Lukashenko said.

He also added that “the Belarusian-Russian union does not need extra territories, God grant us to manage our own.”

Earlier, he also baselessly accused Ukraine of smuggling weapons into Belarus, although the Belarusian border service, on the contrary, recorded a significant decrease in smuggling in 2020.

He has also twice this year announced closing the border with Ukraine, yet no changes have been observed at the border checkpoints on the Belarusian side.