The presidents of Russia and Belarus, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, held a telephone conversation this evening, BelTA and TASS reported.
Putin called Lukashenko and thanked him for intercepting a large shipment of explosives at the Belarusian-Polish border yesterday. The shipment was supposed to be smuggled into Russia. The attempt was stopped by Belarusian customs. It was determined that it was a highly explosive substance, small quantities of which could lead to serious consequences.
The Russian President asked his Belarusian counterpart to convey his gratitude and to provide maximum encouragement to the specialists and experts who discovered and identified the dangerous cargo.
In addition, the heads of state discussed their upcoming meetings, including the one in Volgograd at the end of April, and agreed to discuss in detail current issues of cooperation and exchange views on a wide range of topics in general.
Also in their conversation, Lukashenko and Putin discussed the upcoming Belarusian-Russian exercise “Zapad-2025“ and affected the situation in the "special military operations zone", Belarusian and Russian news agencies indicate.
On April 6, Belarusian customs officers stopped the import of the largest shipment of explosives in the history of Belarus. A 41-year-old driver tried to transport 580 kg of especially powerful explosives of foreign origin across the Belarusian-Polish border and transport them further to Russia. He traveled through the Brest border checkpoint in a Mercedes car. Based on the risk analysis system, customs officers subjected the car to a thorough inspection, during which explosives were found in secret places.
The immediate examination carried out by the customs laboratory confirmed that the substance found was pentaerythritol tetranitrate (TEN) with a total quantity of over 580 kg. The driver of the car was detained.