Belarus supplies Russian army with critical military equipment
Aleksandr Lukashenko has ordered the transfer of some equipment from Belarusian military units to the Russian army, reports the Militarny portal. This decision stems from an "urgent request from the Russian side" and addresses the losses and shortages of equipment affecting Moscow, including the Kursk region and other areas.
Recently, the image of a Russian army lacking sufficient equipment has become increasingly apparent. Not long ago, anonymous sources within European intelligence reported the possibility of Iran supplying the Russian Federation with hundreds of ballistic missiles with a range of 75 miles. It is also known that the Russians are acquiring weapons from North Korea, including KN-23 ammunition.
Belarus hands over its equipment to Russia
Belarus also guarantees support for Putin's army, sending ammunition and military equipment from its warehouses to the front since 2022. The cooperation between Moscow and Minsk continues, resulting in another arms transfer to aid Russia. According to Militarny, Belarus is now set to send equipment not from warehouses but from combat units.
Analysts suggest that the transfer of weapons actively used by the Belarusian military may indicate that Minsk emptied out its military warehouses in 2022-2023, and currently only retains weapons that are in active service in its units.
It's also worth noting that Belarus does not produce its own combat armoured vehicles. This means that the equipment transferred at the request of the Russian Federation represents a "long-term limitation of the material potential of the Belarusian mechanised forces" – it reads.
Minsk provides no specifics. There are several possibilities
The Belarusian authorities do not specify how much and what kind of equipment will be sent to Russia. However, the list of likely units is relatively short. The Belarusian armed forces are not an extensive army with a wide range of equipment. In the Global Firepower ranking (2021), the Belarusian army ranked 50th. It relies primarily on Soviet or Russian-made equipment. The ground forces include T-72 and T-80 tanks, BMP-1, BMP-2, BTR-60, BTR-70, BTR-80 vehicles, BM-21 Grad, BM-30 Smerch, and Polonez rocket launchers, as well as 2S3 Akatsiya and 2S1 Gvozdika howitzers.
The T-72, which may be on the list of equipment recently sent from Belarus to Russia (in light of the recent movement of these vehicles to the border with Ukraine), is a machine whose mass production began in 1973 and has undergone numerous upgrades over the years, the most notable being the T-72B3 with a new Sosna-U sight and improved reactive armour. The presence of a 125mm 2A46M cannon with 7.62mm and 12.7mm PKT machine guns makes the T-72 a tank capable of threatening opponents on the front line, compared to older Soviet-made machines.
The Belarusian arsenal also includes Soviet BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, which are also popular in the Russian Federation army. This equipment is mainly used for transporting soldiers and accommodates a 10-person crew. However, it originates from the 1960s, and its offensive and defensive capabilities do not meet today's standards. A combination of steel armour, a UTD-20S1 engine that propels the vehicle to 40 mph, and a 30mm 2A42 automatic cannon does not guarantee safety on the battlefield.
