Increasing number of Russian military equipment reported in the Gomel region of Belarus

Kateryna Tyshchenko – Sunday, 3 April 2022, 17:03

More Russian military equipment is coming to the Gomel region of Belarus, which is located near the Ukrainian border. This movement may indicate a rotation of Russian troops.

Source: Anton Motolko, Belarusian photographer and blogger, founder of the online project MotolkoHelp, on Twitter

Quote: "More Russian equipment is coming to the Gomel region of Belarus, which indicates a rotation of troops, rather than their withdrawal from Belarus."

Details: According to the expert, the demand of Ukraine and other countries should be the withdrawal of Russian troops both from Ukraine and Belarus.

"If Russian troops remain in Belarus, it will not solve the problem for Ukrainians, and the situation in Belarus will get much worse", Motolko says.

Earlier that day, Motolko reported that a column of 20 vehicles had been seen at the entrance to Gomel city. The column was moving towards the city centre. Another column of 20 vehicles marked with a "V" was seen near Minsk, moving along the M5 highway towards Gomel. On Sunday, several columns, including a lot of armoured vehicles, KamAZ and Ural trucks, were coming from Minsk in the direction of Gomel.

"Since morning we have been observing movement of Russian Armed Forces in the direction of Gomel. The Belaruski Hayun project reported a high number of movements in the Gomel region and in the direction from Minsk to Gomel", Motolko says.

Motolko reports that stolen Ukrainian pickups were brought to Gomel under the control of Oleksandr Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus.

Before the war, on 4 February 2022, the U.S. handed over 40 Mitsubishi L200 latest series pickup trucks to the Ukrainian Border Guard to protect the country's northern and eastern borders from an expected Russian invasion.

Mitsubishi L200 pickup trucks were reported in Gomel. All of them are of 2021 release, damaged, painted black or white and don’t have licence plates. All of the vehicles are marked with a "V". 

Photos show that the model, colours, rims, and stickers on the bodies of the vehicles in Gomel correspond to the Ukrainian ones.

"If it’s true, the import and use of stolen vehicles was carried out under the control of Lukashenko by several Belarusian agencies: the border service agencies, customs inspection, traffic police and the police", Motolko states.

According to the expert, on Sunday there were many flights from the Machulishchy military airfield (Minsk region, Belarus).

However, at 11:15, a Russian Il-76 (tail number RA-78831, departing from Belgorod, Russia) landed at the Machulishchy airfield. At 15:00, this Russian Il-76 departed from Machulishchy to Belgorod.