China has assisted Belarus in setting up production lines capable of manufacturing roughly half a million artillery shell casings per year, destined for Russia, Deutsche Welle reported, citing Matviy Kupreychyk, a representative of BelPol—an opposition-aligned group of former Belarusian law-enforcement personnel, on November 17.
“China helped the Belarusian regime produce 240,000 casings for 152mm artillery shells and another 240,000 for 122mm rockets used in Russia’s Grad systems. These are annual figures,” Kupreychyk said, clarifying that these are empty casings—shells without explosive payloads.
BelPol reports that China sold Belarus’ entire assembly lines for producing these components. Kupreychyk added that Belarus lacks the industrial capacity to manufacture explosives and thus only fabricates empty shells. “They’re producing blanks, just the metal shells,” he said.
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He also noted that Belarusian engineers were unable to install the production line themselves. China reportedly sent ten of its own engineers to Belarus to carry out the installation.
“The line is now operational. What’s even more interesting is that Chinese personnel are now stationed at two Belarusian factories, overseeing the entire production process,” he added.
According to Kupreychyk, all of these casings are produced strictly under Russia’s state defense procurement orders. “Russia is the only customer. The Lukashenko regime has no alternative buyer,” he said.
Earlier, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko urged officials to rely on traditional landline telephones instead of mobile phones, warning that calls made over cellular networks could end up “on servers in Canada or the United States.”
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