Visit to Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club

On 22 April, Belarusian President Aleksnadr Lukashenko visited the educational and sports institution Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union S. Gritsevets.

The head of state first reviewed the current structure of DOSAAF and the progress in fulfilling the tasks facing the organization. Currently, DOSAAF is addressing a number of issues that are significant for the state. These include promoting motorsports, air, combat and marksmanship sports, fostering youth engineering among young people, providing patriotic education to citizens, and training specialists on a contractual basis for the Ministry of Defense and other state bodies that provide for military service, among other missions.

“This means we need DOSAAF,” the head of state stressed.

The discussion also touched upon pilot training. The President was informed that Belarus is the only post-Soviet country that has preserved a network of aero clubs and continues to develop it. There are five of them in total. This largely contributes to the quality flight training of pilots for both civil and military aviation.

“Is the training decent or are there shortcomings? Is the training of pilots going well?” Aleksandr Lukashenko asked.

Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin replied: “The level is sufficient.”

After a new training and logistics base was built, the DOSAAF Aero Club moved from the Borovaya airfield to the Lipki airfield in 2017. Lipki is used by both the state aviation emergency rescue institution Aviation of the Emergencies Ministry and the Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club.

Aleksandr Lukashenko asked whether that decision had been correct and how comfortable it was for DOSAAF and the Emergencies Ministry to operate on the same site. Chairman of the DOSAAF Central Council Andrei Nekrashevich assured him that there were no problems whatsoever. Moreover, the two agencies jointly address matters of comprehensive support.

In 2025, a sports and patriotic center was built at the airfield, featuring a shooting range, an adventure park, a workout area, a set of outdoor exercise machines, a zone for laser tag, airsoft, paintball and radio sport, an obstacle course, children’s playgrounds, and other facilities.

“You have done well. You relocated quickly and put the territory in order. I wanted to say ‘in a military way’, but even Khrenin [Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin] doesn’t have it this good,” the Belarusian leader said as he assessed the site.

Furthermore, after the relocation, all flight personnel of the Minsk Aero Club underwent retraining on new types of equipment within a year. This was done in fulfillment of the head of state’s instruction to organize flight training for civil aviation pilots. Modern equipment was procured in stages: a single-engine Viper SD4 aircraft, a twin-engine Tecnam, and a training simulator. Thus, Belarus has a national school for training civilian pilots. In 2025, the first ten civilian pilots completed their training.

“You have done well in this regard. The Russians also have a decent setup, but they envy us and keep asking: ‘Give us your pilots.’ I tell them: ‘We need them ourselves. But you are welcome to come and train here,’” the Belarusian leader noted.

One of DOSAAF’s activities is training drivers of various categories (about 45,000 a year), which generates good revenue. Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that he himself had once trained at a DOSAAF driving school.

The President noted that the quality of future driver training must be strengthened, as this is first and foremost a matter of road safety: “Driver training needs to be toughened. These days, just about anyone is driving a car.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that he is in favor of giving everyone who wants it, both men and women, the opportunity to take driver training at a driving school. However, to become a driver, one needs not only specialized skills but also certain innate qualities: attentiveness, composure, and so on.

The President stressed that certain measures should be taken not to cut people off or weed out as many as possible, but rather with a focus on the quality of training and the assessment of driving skills. 

“We realize that, Aleksandr Grigoryevich [Lukashenko]. And what’s been happening on the roads lately… We’re implementing a joint project with the traffic police and the Transport and Communications Ministry. A special commission is working to come up with a set of measures to increase safety on our roads,” Andrei Nekrashevich, Chairman of the Central Board of DOSAAF, said. “Our role and contribution is to improve the quality of training. We’re not waiting for orders from above.”

“You have everything you need to do that,” the head of state said.

“So that we train worthy drivers who can get out on the roads in a car,” the head of state said. “No matter how offended they might be at me today when they hear this speech. They will thank me later, because they will stay alive.”

It was reported that DOSAAF is also involved in developing various sports. These include practical shooting, paintball, airsoft, laser tag, motorsports (automobile and motorcycle), underwater sports, parachuting, air sports, and many others.

During his time at the Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club, the President toured the Space pavilion. Among the exhibits are personal belongings of Belarusian cosmonauts and Yuri Gagarin. Aleksandr Lukashenko showed particular interest in the descent module of the Soyuz spacecraft. The museum has personal items and pieces of equipment belonging to cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya.

Natalya Gagarina, Yuri Gagarin’s niece, provided insights into the unique historical artifacts. Back in the Soviet era, she came to Minsk to study and graduated from the linguistic university. Currently, the niece of the first cosmonaut works as deputy head for international cooperation and media relations at the Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club.

An interesting detail from Yuri Gagarin’s biography: at one time, the first cosmonaut trained at the Saratov Oblast Aero Club of DOSAAF USSR. Thus, aero clubs have a direct connection to cosmonautics. Before his space flight, Yuri Gagarin qualified as a foundryman. One of the aircraft models he cast is kept in the Space pavilion at the Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club. The cosmonaut’s niece told the head of state about these and other episodes from Yuri Gagarin’s life in detail.

During his visit to the Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club, Aleksandr Lukashenko was demonstrated the capabilities of modern drones and the skills of their operators.

Drone racing is one of the new areas of activity for DOSAAF, but it is developing very actively. Over the past year, 15 sections have been opened across the country. Drone racing training classrooms are equipped with modern hardware, including computer simulators with joysticks for mastering basic piloting skills, as well as a “cage” – a specially equipped space for flights at the initial stage of training, ensuring the safety of the operator and the integrity of the drone.

In this high-speed sport, pilots control quadcopters from a first-person view via special goggles, racing through a complex obstacle course. Here, precise control of the drone at high speed is extremely important for the operator. As the President was told, the speed reaches about 200 km/h. Operators are capable of precision maneuvering, dodging obstacles even in confined spaces. Quadcopters of various sizes and payload capacities are used – from the smallest and almost silent to large ones. They have a wide range of applications for both civilian and military purposes.

While developing this new area, DOSAAF trains not only in drone operation but also in assembly and repair. The President was assured that DOSAAF is capable of deploying drone operator training in any part of the country. Over the past year, they have trained about 250 operators.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also visited the open-air Aviation Technology Museum. It features over 50 exhibits, including fighter aircraft, frontline bombers, strategic bombers, passenger planes, military transport aircraft, two-seat multirole planes, as well as helicopters and a ground catapult trainer.

Among the museum’s exhibits is Flight No. 1" – the Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft on which the Belarusian leader previously flew on foreign trips. It was on this plane that Aleksandr Lukashenko flew to Yugoslavia in 1999, which was being bombed by NATO forces, to support President Slobodan Milošević. The Belarusian head of state was the only foreign leader to visit the country at the height of the bombings.

During his visit to the aero club, Aleksandr Lukashenko also spoke with trainee pilots from both civilian and military aviation. Oleg Saltovsky, the commander of the aviation unit of the Belavia airline, who also pilots Flight No. 1, introduced the head of state to the first group of eight graduating civilian pilots. “I wish you success. Listen to him, he knows a thing or two about aircraft,” the President said with a touch of humor.

“And this is our helicopter future,” he said, addressing third-year cadets of the Aviation Faculty of the Military Academy, who are currently doing their practical training at the DOSAAF Aero Club. The head of state also wished them success in their future service. The discussion also touched on the network of DOSAAF aero clubs across the country. Aleksandr Lukashenko reminded that an aero club in Mogilev needs to be relocated to a different site – near the current airport. The President was informed that this work is underway.

Also on display were parachute systems designed for different purposes: for beginners, for precision landing, and high-speed parachutes for individual aerial acrobatics. All of them are produced in Belarus, manufactured in Vitebsk (except for the safety activation devices).

Among DOSAAF’s activities is also the development of sports at youth schools and sports complexes: high-speed radiotelegraphy, motoball, underwater swimming, and shooting. Opportunities have been created for air, combat and marksmanship sports, track racing, various motorcycle sport disciplines, and paintball. “You need to invest properly in shooting sports so that we can have Olympic champions,” the President instructed.

At the end of the visit, the head of state was presented with a model of the legendary Antonov An-2 aircraft. The gift was presented by Polina Vlasova from Belarus’ parachute sports team, who recently became a champion at the CIS DOSAAF Cup, and Anna Belyaeva, a multiple winner of high-speed radiotelegraphy competitions and a world champion. “We are proud to have raised such athletes,” the chairman of the DOSAAF Central Council said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that such significant achievements of Belarusian athletes are not talked about enough publicly: “For some reason, people don’t know about this. They need to see more of it.” The President stressed that such victories should be valued more at the national level and that athletes in these sports – perhaps not as popular as others – should be properly honored. “Instead, we award some so-called world champions and fuss over HC Dinamo Minsk... But what about our real female champions, especially in the Year of the Woman? The military has failed here. Winners should be celebrated by you as well,” the head of state said.