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Russia will provide Belarus with modern planes for guarding border, Lukashenka says

Russia will provide Belarus with modern planes for guarding the border, Alyaksandr Lukashenka told reporters on September 21, speaking about his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Black Sea coastal resort of Sochi last Saturday.

"We have common air defenses," Mr. Lukashenka said, according to the government's news agency BelTA. "We discussed many air force issues. I asked for support and I got it. We'll soon get modern planes for patrolling the border."

Mr. Lukashenka explained the aircraft used by the Belarusian Armed Forces were growing old. "We can lift them in wartime, but proper new planes are necessary in peacetime," he said. //BelaPAN