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Belarus plans air defence boost

MINSK, March 13, /ITAR-TASS/. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko endorsed the proposals of the country’s Defence Ministry to boost air defences of the Belarusian state. Defence Minister Yuri Zhadobin stated this on Wednesday after the Security Council meeting that discussed the preliminary results of the first stage of the Belarusian Armed Forces combat preparedness check.

“These results on the whole have been approved,” the minister said. “The head of state also made an instruction to check the plan of interaction within unified regional air defences of Belarus and Russia for redeployment to the Belarusian territory of some 12 Russian planes, which will be done shortly,” the minister said.

Zhadobin posted the head of state on the military-political and military-strategic situation close to Belarusian borders, mentioning, specifically, preparation for NATO aerial exercise, for which purpose six planes arrived at an airfield in Lithuania, bringing the number of the warplanes to ten. Twelve warplanes will fly to an airfield in Poland for the exercise.

Lukashenko was also posted on the results of the first stage of a random check of combat preparedness of the Belarusian Armed Forces, after which he pointed to the expediency of the second stage of the check.

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