Belarus has taken a symbolic step away from dependence on Russian armoured vehicles by fielding its first batch of domestically designed BTR-V2 wheeled armoured personnel carriers. According to Belarusian military channels, the initial serial vehicles – likely a pilot batch – have been delivered to the 120th Separate Mechanised Brigade based in Minsk, where they will be used both to familiarise crews and to fine-tune the design before large-scale production begins. Behind the technical news lies a clear political message: three decades after the collapse of the USSR, Minsk wants to show that it can equip its army with indigenous hardware rather than relying exclusively on Soviet-era platforms or Russian imports.
The vehicle itself is better known under its factory name Volat-V2, index MZKT-690003. It was developed by the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant (MZKT), Belarus’s main producer of heavy military trucks and special chassis, and first appeared in public at the MILEX-2021 defence exhibition. From the beginning, the Volat-V2 programme was conceived as a replacement for ageing BTR-70/80 and BMP-1/2 vehicles that still make up the bulk of Belarusian mechanised formations. Earlier attempts to create a new Belarusian BTR in cooperation with Russia stalled for lack of funding and political backing; the current design emerged when MZKT revived the idea as a purely domestic project in the late 2010s. Formal adoption into service was announced in 2025, after several years of testing and a round of state trials.
From a technical standpoint, the BTR-V2 is a modern 8×8 armoured vehicle that borrows heavily from Western design philosophy. Unlike the classic Soviet BTR family, which placed the engine at the rear and forced infantry to enter and exit through awkward side doors, the Volat-V2 has its power pack in the front, a combat compartment in the middle and a troop compartment at the rear, with a full-width hydraulic ramp for rapid dismount. The vehicle carries a crew of three – commander, driver and gunner – plus eight dismounts. It is fully amphibious, using water-jet propulsion to cross rivers and coastal waters, and is designed to work as both an APC and, in some configurations, as a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle with heavier armament.
The armour package has been steadily upgraded since the prototype shown in 2021. The latest version delivered to the Belarusian army features add-on armour that brings the frontal protection up to the Belarusian Br5 standard and the side armour to Br4. In practice, this roughly corresponds to protection against heavy machine-gun fire and some automatic cannon threats on the front arc, and against rifle and light machine-gun fire on the sides. Mine resistance is advertised as compliant with STANAG 4569 Level 2a/2b, meaning the vehicle should withstand the equivalent of a 6 kg TNT blast under any wheel or under the centre of the hull. These improvements, together with internal changes, push combat weight to around 23.5–24.5 tonnes – significantly heavier than the old BTR-80, but still lighter and less protected than many current NATO 8×8 vehicles such as the Boxer or Patria AMV, which often aim for Level 3 or 4 mine protection. Even so, for Belarusian troops used to thin-skinned Soviet designs with notoriously poor mine survivability, the BTR-V2 represents a notable step forward.
Under the armoured skin, the vehicle relies on a mix of foreign and domestic technology. Power is provided by a Chinese-made six-cylinder Weichai WP13 diesel rated at about 550–560 horsepower, mated to a six-speed hydromechanical transmission MZKT-55613 developed in Minsk specifically for heavy wheeled combat vehicles. This powertrain gives the Volat-V2 a maximum road speed of up to 110 km/h and an advertised cruising range between 900 and 1200 kilometres, depending on configuration and conditions. Independent hydropneumatic suspension on all axles and lockable differentials are intended to provide good cross-country performance and maintain stability despite the high centre of gravity typical for turreted 8×8 designs. In water, the vehicle can reach around 10 km/h using its water-jets, allowing it to cross rivers without engineering support in many situations.
The combat module chosen for the first production batch underlines Belarus’s ambition to field a fully modern fighting vehicle rather than a simple troop carrier. The version entering service uses the Adunok-BM30.2 remotely operated weapon station, designed by the Belarusian firm KB Display. This compact turret mounts a stabilised 30 mm 2A42 automatic cannon, a coaxial 7.62 mm PKT machine gun and four 9M113 Konkurs-RB anti-tank guided missiles, along with banks of smoke grenade launchers for self-screening. Both the commander and the gunner have day-night electro-optical sights, and all weapon functions are controlled from inside the protected hull. This combination gives the BTR-V2 the ability to engage infantry, light armoured vehicles and, at shorter ranges, even main battle tanks, while keeping the crew under armour – a major improvement over legacy BTRs with manually operated turrets and exposed gunners.
Seen in a wider context, the introduction of the BTR-V2 is significant for Minsk on several levels. Militarily, it offers a path to gradually retire Soviet-era vehicles whose protection and ergonomics lag far behind today’s battlefield realities, as demonstrated by losses in Ukraine on both sides. Politically, it allows the regime to claim that Belarus, despite sanctions and economic pressure, can still design and produce its own sophisticated armoured vehicle, rather than simply buying whatever Russia chooses to supply. The reliance on a Chinese engine and Russian-origin weapons systems shows that the country is far from autarkic, but the fact that design, integration and final assembly take place in Minsk still matters – both for domestic propaganda and for the local defence industry, which gains experience in complex systems engineering. Western and Ukrainian analysts note that Belarus remains deeply tied to Russia in security terms, yet projects like Volat-V2 slightly rebalance that relationship by giving Minsk something to offer in return: a relatively modern 8×8 platform that could, in theory, be exported to other sanctioned or cash-strapped states looking for an alternative to Russian BTRs.
For now, the first BTR-V2s in the 120th Mechanised Brigade are as much a demonstrator as a mass capability. The army will have to train crews, mechanics and commanders, integrate the new vehicles into its existing tactics and logistics chain, and identify technical issues that inevitably surface when a prototype becomes a series product. Questions remain about cost, production capacity under sanctions and whether Belarus can maintain a stable supply of foreign components over time. Still, compared with the long stagnation that characterised much of the post-Soviet period, the arrival of an indigenous armoured personnel carrier in Belarusian service marks a clear break with the past. Whether one sees the headline claim that Belarus is “ending” its reliance on Russia as overstatement or early trend-spotting, the appearance of the BTR-V2 on Minsk’s streets is concrete proof that the country is at least trying to carve out a slightly more independent path in the armoured domain – even while remaining firmly anchored in Moscow’s political and military orbit.
