JAKARTA - A senior Belarusian Defense Ministry official said on Sunday the Iskander tactical missile system capable of carrying nuclear warheads and the S-400 air defense system deployed to his country was ready to carry out the task.
"Our soldiers, the crew have fully completed their training at the combat training center with the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus," said Leonid Kasinsky, head of the Belarusian Ministry of Defense's Main Directorate of Ideology in a video posted on the messaging app Telegram.
"Types of these weapons (the Iskander and S-400 systems) are on combat duty today and they are fully ready to carry out tasks according to their intended goals," added Kasinsky.
It is unclear how many Iskander systems have been deployed to Belarus after President Putin said in June that Moscow would supply Minsk with such missiles and air defense systems.
The news follows Putin's visit to Minsk on December 19, amid concerns in Kyiv that the Kremlin leader would pressure Belarus to join a new ground attack and open up new fronts in an invasion of Ukraine.
It is known that Russian troops used Belarus as a launch pad for their failed attacks in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in February, and there has been an increase in Russian and Belarusian military activities in recent months.
The Iskander-M missile is known to have the NATO code 'SS-26 Stone', replacing the Soviet Union's 'Scud' era. The guided missile has a range of up to 500 km (300 miles) and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
The range reached deep into Belarusian neighbor Ukraine and members of NATO Poland, who had a very tense relationship with Minsk.
Meanwhile, the S-400 system is a Russian mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) interception system capable of attacking aircraft, UAVs, cruise missiles, and has terminal ballistic missile defense capabilities.
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