Top 5 Belarusian private companies supplying equipment and spare parts to Russia’s defense industry

We used the term “private companies” to refer to businesses whose owners, as stated in their corporate documents, are private individuals. This group did not include organizations from the State Authority for Military Industry system, even though they are not state-owned.

#1 Oboronnye Initsiativy: A $2 million delivery

Among private Belarusian companies, the largest deal with a Russian military-industrial complex enterprise by value goes to the Minsk-based military manufacturer TAA Abaronnyja Inicyjatyvy. Eight months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a company official told reporters that the company does not supply products to Russia. The BIC identified at least one such shipment. In 2024, the company delivered the I218-22 item — classified as radar and other equipment — to Russian aircraft manufacturer JSC Tupolev in a deal worth more than $2 million. Starting in 2019, the US, the EU, and eight other countries imposed a range of sanctions against this Moscow-based company. It designs and manufactures missile carriers, such as the Tu-22M3 strategic bomber that carries the Kh-22 cruise missile. This missile is currently being used in the war against Ukraine.

The documents do not specify what the “I218-22” designation refers to. According to Ivan Siutsou, a former senior researcher at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and PhD in Physics and Mathematics, the term “article” can refer to a prototype of military products.

Belarusians Dzianis Pashchanka and Uladzimir Melikayeu are the co-founders of Abaronnyja Inicyjatyvy. [*] [*] Pashchanka was a member of the Council for Entrepreneurship Development under the Minsk City Executive Committee in 2010 and of the Public Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship Development under the State Authority for Military Industry from 2012 to 2017. [*]

The second founder’s bio contains details that don’t fit together well. On the one hand, the press service of the State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus quoted Melikayeu as a representative of Oboronnye Initsiativy and called the company a flagship of the national defense industry. Before establishing this company, he worked for UP Tetraedr from 2003 until at least 2021. Tetraedr produces military radio-electronic systems and is associated with the military-industrial complex. On the other hand, Melikayeu was recognized as a political prisoner by the Viasna human rights organization. In 2025, he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment by the Minsk City Court on charges of inciting hatred or discord (article 130 of the Belarusian Criminal Code). Following a visit to Minsk by John Coale, the US President’s special envoy, Melikayeu was pardoned in March 2026.

Since the 2010s, Abaronnyja Inicyjatyvy has been developing the Talisman and Amulet on-board defense systems, the Aura missile attack prevention system, and other military installations. The Talisman suite was in service with Belarus, Azerbaijan, Syria, and India at different times. [*] [*]

#2 VTT: A family-run business

Four out of five founders of the second-ranked company in our rating are family members. The Smarhon-based TAA VTT is owned by sisters Lidziya Huletskaya and Palina Ralevich, both of whom have the maiden name Vysotskaya. Their mother, Natallia, and their uncle, Avianir, are also co-owners of the company. [*] [*]

The fifth owner is a family acquaintance named Rustem Maiseyeu. There is little public information about the latter three. For example, we know that Natallia and Avianir have retired. Lidziya and Palina do not expose their connection with the company. Lidziya works in video director, and Palina promotes confectionery business on Instagram. All of them earn money from contracts with Russian arms manufacturers, among other things.

VTT specializes in producing vacuum technology. In 2023–2024, the company supplied vacuum units and other components worth more than $1.5 million to OAO VOMZ (Vologda Optical-and-Mechanical Plant) and PAO KMZ (the Krasnogorsk Plant named after S.A. Zverev). These Russian companies produce sniper sights and armored vehicle sights. Both companies are part of the Shvabe holding company, which is part of the Rostec State Corporation. The United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have imposed sanctions on Rostec.

Vacuum technology plays a significant role in the production process of sights, according to physicist Ivan Siutsou.

Aliaksandr Ralevich, the deputy head of production and husband of company co-owner Palina Ralevich, is one of the publicly visible people associated with VTT. He is listed as the contact person for job applicants.

In 2025, Ralevich and his partners registered TAA Spektralnyja Prybory i Sistemy in the Minsk District. One of the new company’s co-owners is Rustem Maiseyeu, a co-owner of VTT. At the time of publication, the company did not have its own website or email address. According to the state registry, the company’s activity is the production of optical devices. [*] [*]

To learn more about the new company’s operations, a BIC journalist called Aliaksandr Ralevich while posing as a representative of a fictitious Russian company acting on behalf of the Shvabe holding. Not only did Ralevich agree to discuss cooperation between Spektralnyja Prybory i Sistemy and the sanctioned Russian holding, but he also confirmed VTT’s willingness to participate.

In 2025, the BIC described the other vacuum technology companies that comprise the Izovac group. The companies within the Izovac group, which has a 30-year history and, according to its co-founder, counts Apple among its former partners, has supplied $200 million worth of goods to the Russian military-industrial complex.

#3 BAZDorMash: Spare parts for “the most sanctioned enterprise in the Russian Federation”

Third on our list of private companies is Zhodzina-based Bazdormash LLC (TAA BAZDorMash), the successor of TDA Belautazapchastka. The company manufactures hydraulic cylinders and other industrial products.

It was hydraulic cylinders, along with non-porous rubber products and filters with valves, that BAZDorMash supplied in 2022–2025 to PAO MZIK (the Kalinin Machine-Building Plant), which manufactures equipment for the Buk-M1 and S-300V surface-to-air missile systems and is under sanctions from the EU, the United States, Canada, Ukraine, and Switzerland. The total value of deliveries is $566,000. Hydraulic cylinders are widely used in various industries and types of machinery. Therefore, we cannot claim that the supplied parts were specifically used for producing armaments.

From 2022 to 2025, the Belarusian company supplied two additional Russian enterprises, KAMAZ PTC and OOO STFK KAMAZ, with installations and engines valued at more than $792,000. KAMAZ produces the trucks that the Russian army is using in its war against Ukraine. The press service dubbed the auto concern “the most sanctioned enterprise in Russia.”

The Belarusian company sold eight hydraulic cylinders to Arms Division LLC for about $1,000. This Russian company produces Tigr-M armored vehicles for the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as combined gunner’s sights for the BTR-82A armored vehicle.

#4 Minotor-Service: Following Lukashenko’s order

Fourth place in our ranking goes to the company that, in 2016, Aleksandr Lukashenko said he hoped would grow — along with other private enterprises — into “powerful defense-sector structures that would work not only for domestic needs but also for foreign consumption.” A few years later, these words became a reality for Minotor-Service Enterprise (UP Minator-Servis). From 2022 to 2025, the company supplied the Russian military-industrial complex with final drives, seals, tracks, road wheels, hoses, and other components that may be used in the production of military equipment, totaling nearly $1.2 million.

Ivan Siutsou noted that most of the listed parts are intended for use in the production of tracked vehicles. Road wheels, for example, are designed for tracked tractors, which are primarily used by the military. The company supplied them to the Kalinin Machine-Building Plant. This company is under sanctions by the EU, the US, Canada, Ukraine, and Switzerland.

Other Russian customers of Minotor-Service Enterprise that manufacture, repair, and maintain weapons and military equipment include AO UMZ (Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant) and AO 75 Arsenal. The latter overhauls radar stations, air defense systems and complexes. The EU, US, Canada, and Switzerland have imposed sanctions on the former, while only the US has imposed sanctions on the latter.

Minotor-Service began collaborating with the Russian military-industrial complex long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2014, it was the only Belarusian enterprise to perform the assembly-line serial repair and maintenance of military equipment ordered by the Russian Ministry of Defense. From 2023 to 2025, the company developed tracked and wheeled military equipment in accordance with the agreement on implementing a joint program of military-technical cooperation between Minsk and Moscow. The enterprise participated in the program alongside giants of the Belarusian defense industry, including JSC Peleng (TAA Peleng), JSC Display Design Bureau (AAT Kanstruktarskaje Bjuro Dysplej), and OJSC MZKT (AAT MZKC), among others.

#5 Kvand IS: Trading technologies despite being a sanctioned company

In June 2024, Washington imposed sanctions on Minsk-based Kvand Is OOO (TAA Kvand IS), the fifth company on our list, for supplying drone technology to the Russian Defense Ministry and for “operating or having operated in the defense and related materiel sector of the Russian Federation economy.” The US Treasury Department has stated that the company has developed reconnaissance UAVs and loitering munitions, also known as kamikaze drones.

However, this did not stop the co-founders of Kvand IS from doing business in the American market through a network of other companies. [*] [*]

The last in this chain is UAVOS Inc., a U.S.-registered company. Until at least 2023, its director was Vadim Tarasov, a Russian citizen who holds an Israeli passport. He was also a co-founder of the Swiss company UAVOS GmbH until September 2025. At different times, the company was owned by the co-founders of the Belarusian company Kvand IS: Yury Kapacheuski, Aliaksei Stratsilatau (who concurrently serves as head of the American UAVOS), and Siarhei Tytsyk. The US imposed sanctions on Tytsyk in the summer of 2024. As of publication, Tarasov is also a member of the Supervisory Board of UAVLAS Sp. z o.o. based in Poland. [*]

The owners of Kvand IS also made money in Russia, in addition to the European and American markets. The BIC revealed that, in March 2024, the company supplied PJSC ALMAZ R&P Corp. with optoelectronic stations, pivoting devices for controlling reconnaissance and strike drones, and digital cameras. The delivery cost was nearly $600,000. PJSC ALMAZ R&P Corp. is a Russian military-industrial complex enterprise and part of Almaz–Antey Air and Space Defense Corporation JSC, which is under sanctions imposed by the United States, the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The company produces surface-to-air missile platforms, the S-25 Berkut anti-aircraft missile system, and the S-75, S-125, S-200, and A-35 missile defense systems, as well as other installations.

In a written comment to the BIC, Siarhei Tytsyk only confirmed that Kvand IS had sent the pivoting devices to Russia. However, he noted, “It’s not used at war, that’s for sure.”

“There were no supplies, I’m telling you!”

As of the release of this investigation, no restrictions have been imposed on two of the five companies in our ranking: VTT and BAZDorMash. Since 2022, Belarusian weapons and equipment manufacturers Oboronnye Initsiativy and Minotor-Service have been included on the sanctions lists of the United States, the EU, Ukraine, UK, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland for participating in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Company head Siarhei Tytsyk reminded the BIC journalist who interviewed him over the phone about the restrictions imposed on Kvand IS, a UAV development company.

During a telephone conversation, the co-owners of VTT, Palina Ralevich and Avianir Vysotski, remained silent when asked about selling goods to enterprises in the Russian military-industrial complex. The director of BAZDorMash, Dzmitry Sidarau, refused to comment on the topic and suggested that the journalist come to the company’s office for an interview.

We have reached out to all the companies mentioned in the investigation to request their input on the facts presented. As of the time of publication, we had not yet received any responses.

This investigation is part of a series of publications about the cooperation between Belarusian companies and Russian arms manufacturers.