Secret Ammunition Plant Near Slutsk Is Being Built With Critical Violations
- 19.01.2026, 9:09
EMERCOM is sounding the alarm.
The ammunition plant, which the authorities are building near Slutsk, is being constructed with numerous violations of safety requirements. Some of them can no longer be corrected, but the facility is still being prepared for launch. This is stated in a new investigation of the organization of former law enforcers BELPOL, published on January 18.
BELPOL claims that the key reason for violations in the construction of the plant is the rush: the design and construction were carried out in parallel. The designer of the facility - the unitary enterprise Belpromproekt - has no experience in creating such production facilities. When designing, the organization relied on Russian standards, which BELPOL calls outdated, referring to frequent explosions at similar facilities in Russia.
One of the main problems: the design documentation did not provide for automatic fire extinguishing systems at explosives warehouses. The Ministry of Emergency Situations made this requirement only in April 2025, when the construction and installation work was already 90% complete. At this stage it was no longer possible to correct it, BELPOL claims.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations also required fire extinguishing systems to be installed in the premises of high-hazard categories, but even these requirements came too late, the investigation says.
BELPOL says that the equipment and materials to be installed were not tested for fire resistance. Fire safety and extinguishing equipment did not meet the requirements of the governing documents. Doors with lower fire resistance limits are installed in production buildings, and fire partitions have been replaced with water curtains.
Dozens of comments from the Ministry of Emergency Situations
In October 2025 alone, the Ministry of Emergency Situations sent 12 letters to construction participants listing violations, according to BELPOL. All letters had a "For Official Use" stamp.
According to the organization, in November 2025, the head of the Main Department of Supervision and Prevention of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Dmitry Turchin reported on the condition of the facility at a working meeting. From the documents it follows: reports on elimination of violations are not supported by evidence - that is, they were performed formally. Construction and installation works were performed in violation of the documentation. There are violations in the licenses of subcontractors. According to BELPOL, in the service documents there appeared a permanent wording: "to prepare a deviation from the requirements of norms and rules in the field of industrial safety".
"The pace of elimination of violations in the field of fire safety is extremely low. At the facility where explosives, shells and missiles are handled, fire safety is the main issue. And the construction of the facility is in its final stages as of now, i.e. as of 2026, the year of its commencement. BELPOL, in principle, has no good news for the already recruited and future employees of the "Hull Products Plant"", - the authors of the investigation note.
BELPOL reports about problems with the location of the central plant laboratory: it is located in the area of warehouses of explosives components. In order to comply with safety standards, the building must be covered with earth. But then it is not possible to provide the walls and openings required by the Ministry of Emergency Situations - and thus the normal operation of the laboratory. The mistake was made at the design stage and cannot be corrected, the organization claims.
Evacuation routes are not up to standards
Another problem is related to the technological solutions provided by the Chinese side (China supplies part of the equipment for the plant). Because of them, the length of the evacuation route from the furthest workplace to the nearest exit exceeds the established norms, BELPOL says. The organization concludes that in the event of an emergency, workers may not be able to evacuate in time:
"In the event of an emergency, the fleeing workers at the Hull Products Plant would be competing in speed with a shock wave and fire that is advancing in the same direction as the workers - that is, toward the evacuation exit."
According to BELPOL, there is another problem. Two sections of local public roads run 180 and 500 meters from the finished goods warehouse where a month's supply of ammunition - 20,000 boxes of shells - will be stored. According to safety standards, the distance should be at least 1,000 meters.
The Defense Ministry's Main Military Inspectorate has refused to deviate from these norms, the organization claims. The solution is to take the roads from the population and transfer them to the ownership of the plant.
West, the largest construction site of the military facility in the satellite image of December 18, 2025. Ammunition depots and small hangars with defensive earth embankments are circled.
Equipment supplier warned
Russian company Technodinamika, which is supplying the production lines, recommended to first complete the construction and only then to install the equipment, BELPOL reported. Otherwise, the company does not guarantee the safety and operability of the machinery, it "expressed fears for the fate of its equipment." However, according to the organization, the installation is carried out in parallel with the construction - for the sake of meeting deadlines.
BELPOL also claims that subcontractors commit gross violations during installation: there is no proper protection of expensive equipment from damage, moisture and contamination.
Timing is more important than safety
The chairman of the State Committee of Military Industry Dmitry Pantus reported problems to Deputy Prime Minister Petr Sivak in November 2025, according to documents cited by BELPOL. The letters mention that the construction is "under special control" of Alexander Lukashenko.
BELPOL concludes that officials are choosing between safety and commissioning deadlines. The organization attributes the rush to the authorities' desire to establish the production and sale of ammunition to Russia before the possible end of the war in Ukraine.