The information about the transfer was reported by the British Ministry of Defense on Twitter.
The Ministry wrote that “imagery showed two MiG-31K FOXHOUND interceptor jets were almost certainly parked at Belarus’s Machulishchi Airfield on 17 October, with a large canister stored nearby within a protective earth berm. It is likely that the canister is associated with the AS-24 KILLJOY (Kinzhal) air launched ballistic missile, a large munition that the MiG-31K variant is adapted to carry.
Russia has fielded Kinzhal’s since 2018, but it has not previously been deployed in Belarus. Russia has occasionally launched these weapons during the war in Ukraine, but stocks are likely very limited. That’s why Russia continues to expand these munitions against targets of limited operational importance.
“With a range of over 2000km, basing KILLJOY in Belarus gives Russia a little added advantage in terms of striking additional targets within Ukraine. It has likely carried out the deployment mainly to message to the West and to portray Belarus as increasingly complicit in the war,” the Ministry concludes.
On October 20, Yevhen Silkin, the assistant commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for strategic communications, said that the Russian Federation had transferred to Belarus six MiG-31Ks capable of carrying Kinzhal missiles.