The combat record of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Republic of Belarus
Belarus’s air arm has fought no war of its own since independence. The Second World War entry belongs to the Soviet 1st Air Army, its predecessor; the 1995 balloon shoot-down and the 2021 Ryanair diversion are single incidents; and in the Russian invasion of Ukraine Belarus is a host nation, not a declared combatant. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the Western Front in 1941 to Russia’s war next door.
| Конфликт | Годы | Против | Основной самолет | Вылазки | Самолет потерян | |
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| The Second World War on the Eastern Front1st Air Army and the air defence of the Western FrontSoviet Air Forces: 1st Air Army (Western Front), predecessor of the 26th Air Army; Soviet air defence forces | 1941–1945 | Германия | Soviet fighter, ground-attack and bomber types (not itemised here) | 290,000 | ||
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Fighter, ground-attack and bomber operations for the Western Front, later the 3rd Belorussian Front, including Rzhev, Smolensk, Operation Bagration and East Prussia. The Belarusian Air Force and Air Defence Forces claim this war as their own inheritance, and the ministry’s history devotes most of its space to it. The 1st Air Army was formed in May 1942 from the air forces of the Western Front (10 May, per Wikipedia) and fought through the battles around Rzhev and Vyazma, Orel and Smolensk in 1942–1943. In March 1943 it received the Free French Normandie-Niemen squadron, later a regiment. In 1944 it flew in Operation Bagration, the offensive that drove German forces out of Belarus, and in 1945 in East Prussia. Its wartime commanders were Kutsevalov, Khudyakov, Gromov and Khryukin, according to Wikipedia. The ministry credits the Western Front’s airmen with more than 160 Heroes of the Soviet Union, 18 of them twice; Wikipedia gives 145 for the 1st Air Army alone. The difference probably reflects whether earlier Western Front units are counted. Исход The 1st Air Army ended the war in East Prussia; in January 1949 it was renamed the 26th Air Army, whose headquarters became the Belarusian Air Force command in 1992. Sortie and Hero counts differ between the Belarusian ministry (300,000 sorties, 160+ Heroes, Western Front air forces) and Wikipedia (290,000 sorties, 145 Heroes, 1st Air Army). The aircraft types flown were not itemised from a checked source.
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| The Gordon Bennett Cup balloon shoot-down12 September 1995Belarusian Air Force | 1995 | Ми-24 | 0 | |||
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A Mi-24 helicopter fired on a hydrogen balloon competing in the Gordon Bennett Cup race that had entered Belarusian airspace. The Gordon Bennett Cup is a long-distance gas balloon race. According to Wikipedia, the organisers had informed the Belarusian government of the race in May and filed flight plans. On 12 September 1995 a Belarusian Mi-24 fired on one of the balloons over Belarus and brought it down; both crew, the Americans Alan Fraenckel and John Stuart-Jervis, were killed. Another balloon was forced to land and its crew fined for visa violations; a third landed safely more than two hours later. The Belarusian government’s explanation at the time was not retrieved for this page, and the incident rests here on a single source. Исход Belarus has neither apologised nor offered compensation, according to Wikipedia. Single source (Wikipedia); Belarus’s official account and the US government’s response were not retrieved and are left out. The Mi-24 variant is given as Mi-24B in Wikipedia and is not repeated here.
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| The diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978Minsk, 23 May 2021Военно-воздушные силы и силы противовоздушной обороны | 2021 | МиГ-29 | 1 | 0 | ||
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A MiG-29 was launched while air traffic control told the Athens–Vilnius flight of a bomb threat and it diverted to Minsk. On 23 May 2021 Ryanair Flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius, with 126 passengers and six crew, was told by Minsk air traffic control of a bomb threat and diverted to Minsk, where the opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega were arrested. A MiG-29 of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces was airborne. The sides differ on what it was doing. ICAO’s fact-finding report of 17 January 2022 found that the MiG-29 was tasked with communications back-up and to protect Minsk, and did not approach or escort FR4978; it found the bomb threat deliberately false but could not attribute it to an individual or state, and said Belarus had not preserved records. On 21 June 2021 the EU sanctioned Minister of Defence Viktor Khrenin, the service’s commander Ihar Holub and its chief of staff Andrei Gurtsevich, stating that the command had dispatched military aircraft to escort the forced landing without proper justification. President Lukashenko said on 26 May 2021 that he had acted legally in response to a bomb threat. In July 2022 the ICAO Council condemned the Belarusian government’s act of unlawful interference; in January 2022 US prosecutors charged four Belarusian officials with aircraft piracy. Исход The ICAO Council in July 2022 condemned the Belarusian government for an act of unlawful interference; the EU banned Belarusian carriers from its airspace and sanctioned the defence minister and the Air Force and Air Defence command. The ICAO report and the EU listing disagree on whether the MiG-29 escorted the airliner. The ICAO report and Council text were read through Wikipedia, not directly (the ICAO site refused the request).
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| The Russian invasion of UkraineBelarus as a staging groundAir Force and Air Defence Forces (host nation; not a declared combatant) | 2022– | Russian aircraft on Belarusian bases (Su-35S and others), Belarusian air defence alert forces | ||||
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According to the Belarusian government, no combat role; Belarusian bases hosted Russian forces, and the service has intercepted aerial targets entering from the war zone. Russian and Belarusian forces held the joint exercise Union Resolve-2022 in February 2022, and the Russian troops did not leave. On 24 February, the first day of the invasion, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief reported ballistic missiles launched from Belarus; satellite images published by Maxar and others showed Russian helicopters, aircraft and missile systems near the border and at Baranovichi and Machulishchy, and AirForces Monthly reported Russian Su-35S fighters at Baranovichi from February to April 2022. President Lukashenko said Belarusian forces would not take part directly and on 27 February acknowledged launches by Russia from Belarusian territory as a “forced step”. On 2 March 2022 UN General Assembly resolution ES-11/1, adopted by 141 votes to 5 with 35 abstentions, deplored the involvement of Belarus in the unlawful use of force against Ukraine. Russia calls its war a “special military operation”. On 26 February 2023 BYPOL claimed a drone attack on a Russian A-50 at Machulishchy; an article on the ministry’s portal in April 2023 referred to arrests of people it linked to Ukrainian special services. In August and September 2024 Belarusian officials said air defence had destroyed aerial targets entering from Ukraine, and on 10 September 2025 the General Staff said it had warned Poland and Lithuania of drones heading their way. Исход Ongoing. The UN General Assembly deplored Belarus’s involvement on 2 March 2022; Belarus says it is not a party to the war. Russian use of Belarusian bases rests on satellite imagery and press reports cited by Wikipedia, not on a Belarusian government statement. Belarusian claims of drones destroyed were not independently verified, and Ukraine’s response to them was not retrieved. No current dispositions are given here.
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Поисковый запрос не дал результатов.
Все цифры проверены.
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus: ВВС и войска ПВО — ИсторияAir defence lineage from 1941 (5th Air Defence Division, Kuibyshev); 1st Air Army formed May 1942 from Western Front air forces, renamed 26th Air Army 1949; 2nd Separate Air Defence Army 30 June 1960, Order of the Red Banner 1974; Air Force formed 1992 from the 26th Air Army; merged service created 2001; WWII claims of 300,000 sorties, 5,000+ aircraft and 3,000 tanks destroyed, 160+ Heroes of the Soviet Union (18 twice).
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus: final phase of exercise Union Resolve-2022 (19 February 2022)Headline and excerpt read through the mil.by site search on 30 September 2026; the article page itself did not load for this research. Joint Russian-Belarusian exercise with aviation at the Obuz-Lesnovsky range.
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus: the President on the destruction of aerial targets from Ukraine (10 August 2024)Headline and excerpt read through the mil.by site search on 30 September 2026; the article page itself did not load for this research. Lukashenko: at 18:10 the previous day the Air Force and Air Defence Forces were placed on heightened readiness.
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus: Minister of Defence briefing (10 August 2024)Headline and excerpt read through the mil.by site search on 30 September 2026; the article page itself did not load for this research. Part of the aerial vehicles destroyed; the rest were outside the reach of air defence.
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus: statement by Colonel Sergei Frolov on a violation of the state border (5 September 2024)Headline and excerpt read through the mil.by site search on 30 September 2026; the article page itself did not load for this research. All intruding targets destroyed by the air defence alert forces, according to the statement.
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus: statement by the Chief of the General Staff (10 September 2025)Headline and excerpt read through the mil.by site search on 30 September 2026; the article page itself did not load for this research. Belarus passed air and radar information to the alert forces of Poland and Lithuania, warning them of approaching unknown drones.
- Ministry of Defence of Belarus (bso section): Officers’ club in Rossony (17 April 2023)Headline and excerpt read through the mil.by site search on 30 September 2026; the article page itself did not load for this research. Refers to an airfield incident and to the arrest of people it links to Ukrainian special services.
- Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland: Poland moves to invoke NATO Article 4 (10 September 2025)19 airspace violations overnight by Russian drones; drones posing a direct threat shot down. Taken from the Polish Order of Battle dataset of this project; not re-fetched for this page.
- EUR-Lex: Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/997 of 21 June 2021 (Belarus restrictive measures)Entries 160–163: Minister of Defence Khrenin, Air Force and Air Defence commander Ihar Holub and Chief of the Main Staff Andrei Gurtsevich listed for dispatching military aircraft to “escort” FR4978 on 23 May 2021; Belaeronavigatsia director Leanid Churo.
Данные проверены 30.09.2026. Back to the Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Republic of Belarus.