Russian fighter jets land in Baranavičy

Russia deploys fighters in Hrodna region, which are to start functioning already this year.

A duty flight of the Russian Air Force's Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker fighter jets has been deployed at the airfield of the 61st Fighter Base in Baranavichy, Brest region on December 8, BelaPAN reports.

While visiting Minsk in late April, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia planned to deploy a fighter regiment in Belarus by 2015. According to him, an “air force commandant’s office” will be established and the “first duty flight of combat fighters” will be deployed in Belarus before the end of 2013.

Let us recall that the information about Russia’s plans to deploy an air regiment in Belarus was voiced by Viktor Bondarev, the head of the Russian Ministry of Defence, on June 26 during the meeting with the Belarusan President. The decision to deploy it in Lida, the city in western Belarus, got negative response from the Lithuanian military department.

 “The establishment of a Russian air base in Belarus is a result of the implementation of an interstate agreement on the strengthening of the military component of the Union State,” General Lieutenant Bondarev said then. “As a Union State member, Russia must create and establish its air base there.”

The air base’s infrastructure will be created by Belarus and Russia will provide assistance, the general said. “The air base will become an important element of the first strategic defense echelon of the Union State, protecting Belarusian airspace," he noted, adding that there would be no need to build any facilities at the Lida airfield because “all necessary things are in place.”