MINSK, 10 August (BelTA) – Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin described a timeline of the recent incident with the state border violation and the response of the standby forces as he spoke to the media on 10 August, BelTA has learned.
“On 9 August the standby air defense forces detected unidentified air objects traveling from the territory of Ukraine in the direction of the Republic of Belarus. In order to timely suppress a possible violation of the state border in the Belarusian airspace, the designated forces and means were put on high alert in due time. After crossing the state border, the air targets were classified as unmanned aerial vehicles and a command was given to destroy them,” Viktor Khrenin said. “As a result of the actions of our combat units, some of the aircraft were destroyed. The rest, which were out of range of the air defense, were taken under the control by the standby units and handed over to the Russian side to escort.”
The minister clarified the sequence of events. “At 18.10 the standby forces of the radio-technical brigade detected a group of targets moving from Ukraine towards the state border of the Republic of Belarus. At 18.13 standby air defense forces were put on a high alert to act in case of the air targets violate the state border. At 18.29 the standby crews of Su-30SM jets and Mi-24 helicopters were scrambled. At 18.58, the means of one of the standby anti-aircraft missile regiments detected air targets, which were escorted and identified as unmanned aerial vehicles. At 19.04 the targets were destroyed. The aircraft outside the airspace of the Republic of Belarus were handed over to the air defense forces and means of the Russian Federation to be escorted and destroyed,” Viktor Khrenin said.
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