Lukashenko commented on fake news about UAVs penetration into Belarus while President’s helicopter was in the air
President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko commented on the fake news that unmanned aerial vehicles entered the territory of Belarus simultaneously with the flight of his helicopter
Answering the relevant question during his conversation with residents of the agro-town of Parokhonsk in the Pinsk District of the Brest Region, the Head of State noted, “To avoid all sorts of insinuations about my helicopter, drone, and so on… These are not my problems. These are the problems of the security service. It is their responsibility to monitor the route of drones and guide where the President's helicopter should fly. I really treat this issue in this way.”
The Head of State added that, due to weather conditions (there was fog in the morning), the flight to Parokhonsk was delayed today. There was only one instruction from the President: the employees had to sort everything out on their own and, together with the pilots, make a decision. “If we could not fly, then we could reschedule the event in Parokhonsk for Sunday,” he said.
As a result, it was decided to postpone the flight for an hour. Aleksandr Lukashenko shared his observation, “As I could see, we were flying very low, even unusually low – probably, so that it [the helicopter] would not be visible for Ukrainian electronic means. We arrived normally, so – as people say – I do not much care about this issue.”
The Head of State emphasised the key point, “You know, shooting down the President's helicopter means starting a war that Ukrainians do not need. Therefore, I do not think that there, in Ukraine, those who make decisions are concerned about this problem. Although, of course, it is unpleasant, I should admit. We always treat Ukrainians with open arms, but lately they – especially top officials – have not behaved well towards us.”
Speaking about UAVs in general, the President noted that they are no longer a novelty for the military, but they never were used as a mass weapon of destruction. “Drones are now being produced on industrial scales, and Ukraine plans to manufacture up to 5m of them in a year or in 5 years, I do not exactly remember. Russians, as you understand, will make even more. However, I am worried that they – though bought [drones] – still cannot fly them,” he said.
In addition, as Aleksandr Lukashenko noted, electronic warfare systems are still operational. Therefore, UAVs sometimes lose their orientation, go off course and fail to fly in the right direction, “There were several such cases, from the side of Russia and Ukraine. We criticised Ukrainians harshly, and they addressed us using the same communication channel, “Tell the President that you criticise us, but do not criticise Russians when [drones] enter from the Russian territory.” I replied, “Well, we will turn to Solomon's solution: we will not criticise either side in the media. We will also not be outraged, but we deal with the issue at the level of specialists – which we have been doing actually for a long time.”
The President did not hide that the fake news about drones flying simultaneously with his helicopter had surprised him. He shared his opinion about the reasons for such statements, “It was our fugitives there, abroad, who began saying that drones flew towards the President’s helicopter. Their words were later repeated by Ukrainian [channels]. I did not seriously investigate who was engaged into that. It was a petty dirty trick, a provocation.”
At the same time, the Head of State recommended to realistically assess the situation, “It is important to understand that we are at the front, and the war is in full swing right here, behind the fence. We may listen sometimes attentively and hear the noise made by missiles heading from Russia across Ukraine, towards the Lvov Region, and so on. Those explosions were heard because they’re very powerful weapons.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasised that his main task is to prevent Belarus from being drawn into this war – ‘although everyone understands perfectly well that we are on the side of Russia’, “As far as possible, we are not fighting. We are helping Russia, and we will continue to do this. It is our ally.”
According to the Head of State, the military will learn to control drones better over time, and there will be no accidental flights into Belarus’ territory. At present, in the case of such incidents, violators are shot down by the Belarusian air defence, regardless of whose UAV it is. The President shed light on the agreements with Russia in this aspect, “They are tough. If we fly there or something flies from us to Russia or from Russia to us, then there is immediately an early warning. If there is no warning and our air defence systems detect a target in the air, then we shoot it down – if possible, and if we see this target. Actually, small systems sometimes let drones in, we cannot detect all of them.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko summarised, “That’s the war. Therefore, as specialists, we react calmly to this, but make it clear: we will have to respond if something goes wrong. We have something to respond with, and you know that.”
