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British Intelligence Confirmed the Mig-31K With Kinzhal Missiles Deployment Near Minsk

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The MiG 31K jet / Illustrative photo from open sources
The MiG 31K jet / Illustrative photo from open sources

Ukraine lacks ATACAMS more than ever, because the distance from Ukraine’s border to the Machulyshchi air base in Belarus with the MiG-31K jets is about 225km

The Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom has confirmed that the russian federation has deployed hypersonic Kinzhal air-to-surface missiles at the Machulyshchi airbase south of Minsk.

A satellite image of the air base dated October 17 shows this, where containers for these missiles can be seen next to the parking lot with two identified MiG-31 jets.

Read more: 251 Days of russia-Ukraine War – russian Casualties in Ukraine
British Intelligence Confirmed the Mig-31K With Kinzhal Missiles Deployment Near Minsk, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
Photo credit: British Defense Intelligence

Before that, despite the information about the arrival of the planes at the air base near Minsk, their modernization was unknown, because not all MiG-31s can launch the Kinzhal, but only their MiG-31K modification.

Also, this report "annihilated" the official justification of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, which says that these planes only patrol the borders of the "Union State".

In this situation, it is also characteristic that in Belarus the russians do not observe banal safety standards and store ammunition in an open area next to the planes.

British Intelligence Confirmed the Mig-31K With Kinzhal Missiles Deployment Near Minsk, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
The location of the MiG-31K and Kinzhal missiles at the Machulyshchi Air Base / Picture credits: Maxar satellite image as of August 2022

At the same time, the distance from the border of Ukraine to the Machulyshchi air base is about 225km. And if Ukraine were armed with missile weapons with a flight range of about 300km, it would make it possible to guarantee the destruction of the rather rare MiG-31K and scarce russian missiles on the ground.

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