“Today, a missile is one of the key systems for a country’s defense capacity,” Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Apr 12, while visiting the Ground Control Complex of the National Satellite System.
“This is a weapon that forces enemies to be careful. We are going to pay great attention to this. So, don’t worry for our future, our security and our defending capacity. We have enough specialists who can create systems that can rebuff any enemy. We will always be able to protect our land. We don’t need others’ lands but we will not give ours either,” Lukashenko said.
According to the Belorussian president, China has greatly helped Belarus to develop its own missile technologies. But not only China.
According to Belorussian political analyst Artur Grigoryev, one of the key obstacles to the Belorussian-Ukrainian post-Soviet cooperation in this field has been Ukraine’s reluctance to give its technologies to third countries. In an interview to EADaily he said that the Ukrainians have not so many industries that can export high-technologies. “So, each time the Belorussians asked them to open a joint venture, they found pretexts to refuse. The best the Belorussians got from them was a co-produced anti-tank guided missile. The Russians were also incompliant and offered just discounts for their own missiles,” Grigoryev said.
“But the Belorussians wanted to make and sell their own missiles. They produced good guidance and other systems for missiles but had no access to production technologies. So, they convinced the Chinese to share their experience in the sphere. In exchange, the Chinese asked them to give them access to their MKZT technologies (missile launcher trucks). As a result, the Belorussians bought from the Chinese several batches of missiles for multiple artillery rocket systems,” Grigoryev said.
According to the expert, these missiles are used by Belorussian Polonez (Polonaise) systems. As a bonus, the Chinese have supplied Hammer-type armored vehicles and limousines for parades (the Belorussians used them instead of Soviet-time Chaykas during a parade in 2015).
According to Grigoryev, little is known about this cooperation. “But articles by some Ukrainian, Belorussian, Russian and Polish authors say that missile technologies came to Belarus from Ukraine after the start of the war in Donbass: the new Ukrainian authorities neglected some of their international obligations and used Belarus for selling Russia the weapons they were not allowed to sell. And it was with Lukashenko’s consent that a number of Ukrainian specialists were invited to Belarus. So, it is not a secret that Belorussian missiles are children by Chinese and Ukrainian fathers,” Grigoryev said.