{"id":11363,"date":"2022-02-24T04:10:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T01:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/iskander-deployment-to-belarus-suits-both-moscow-and-minsk\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"iskander-deployment-to-belarus-suits-both-moscow-and-minsk","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/","title":{"rendered":"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Aliaksandr Aliesin<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <b>The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with the West over Ukraine. The Belarusian regime hopes that its possession of state-of-the-art missiles would force the European Union and the United States to reckon and deal with it. <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n\t Minsk may be offered Iskander M missiles as the Kremlin seeks to threaten Ukraine from Belarus.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Joint training centers<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka told reporters during his February 17 visit to the Asipovi\u010dy training ground that he expected Russia to supply Belarus with state-of-the-art weapons free of charge or at a discount.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He said that Minks hopes to receive Iskander M short-range ballistic missile systems.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cI saw the Iskander, a good weapon. Do we need to master it? We do. We will buy [Iskander missiles] from the Russian Federation. That is why we need a fourth training center to master the equipment,\u201d Luka\u0161enka said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He indicated that Belarus did not need Russian military bases, but said it would be happy to set up more joint military training centers with Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He expects Moscow to provide equipment for training centers free of charge. While the sale of some equipment may be restricted by international treaties, transfers to training centers are not limited.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Last year, Russia equipped a joint training center near Hrodna with S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) mobile surface-to-air missile systems.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Under the missile technology export control regime, Russia can sell Belarus only Iskander E missiles with a range of up to 280 kilometers. Belarus has Polonez multiple rocket launch systems that can attack ground targets at the same range. Minsk would like to receive Iskander M missile systems with a range of up to 500 kilometers.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Threat to neighbors<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Minsk could set up the Iskander M training center at the former Oka (SS-23 Spider) missile base in Slabudka, Pru\u017eany district. The base may still have some infrastructure. Most importantly, from Slabudka Iskander M can attack big parts of Poland and Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Iskander has several different conventional warheads, including a cluster munition warhead, a fuel-air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a high explosive-fragmentation warhead, an earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electromagnetic pulse device for anti-radar missions. The missile can also carry nuclear warheads. In September 2017, the KB Mashinostroyeniya (KBM) general designer Valery Kashin said that there were at least seven types of missiles for Iskander, including one cruise missile.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Iskander-M travels at a hypersonic speed of 2100\u20132600 m\/s (Mach 6\u20137) and an altitude of 50 km. It weighs 4,615 kg, carries a warhead of 710\u2013800 kg, has a range of 500 km and achieves a circular error probable (CEP) of 5\u20137 meters (when coupled with optical homing head; 30\u201370 m in autonomous application).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Iskander is a tactical missile system designed to be used in theater level conflicts. It is fitted with conventional or thermonuclear weapon warheads for the engagement of small and area targets (both moving and stationary), such as weapons, air and anti-missile defenses, command and communication posts and troops in concentration areas, among others. The system can destroy both active military units and targets to degrade the enemy&#8217;s capability to wage war. According to Russian claims, the area of destruction from a single warhead is 25,000 square meters, or about two football fields.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Western armies have no assets to counter Iskander missiles, claimed Aleksei Leonkov, editor of Russia\u2019s Arsenal Otechestva magazine. Russia\u2019s deployment of Iskander missile systems to the Kaliningrad exclave forced the United States to suspend the construction of a missile defense base in Redzikowo, Poland, he noted.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Luka\u0161enka wants to be reckoned with<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Waldemar Skrzypczak, a Polish general, admitted in a recent interview with Fakt that Poland would not be able to shoot down Iskander M missiles even if it had US Patriot surface-to-air missile systems.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Therefore, Iskander M deployment to Belarus would considerably strengthen Russia\u2019s geopolitical position in the region and pose an additional threat to the West.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t If Moscow provided Iskander M missiles for a training center based in Belarus, Luka\u0161enka would claim to co-own the powerful weapon, hoping that missiles can force Western democracies to reckon with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with the West over Ukraine. The Belarusian regime hopes that its possession of state-of-the-art missiles would force the European Union and the United States to reckon and deal with it. Minsk may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11363","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\"},\"headline\":\"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-24T01:10:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\"},\"wordCount\":695,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\",\"name\":\"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-24T01:10:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk | Pozirk","description":"By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk | Pozirk","og_description":"By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/"},"headline":"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk","datePublished":"2022-02-24T01:10:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/"},"wordCount":695,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/","name":"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-24T01:10:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","description":"By Aliaksandr Aliesin The deployment of Iskander M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) missiles to Belarus could give Moscow leverage in its standoff with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11363\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Iskander deployment to Belarus suits both Moscow and Minsk"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/longreads\/11363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/longreads"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/longreads"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=11363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}