In the spring of 2024, the Belarusian authorities positioned the Manalit radio elements plant in Vitsebsk on its Republican Honor Board for “outstanding economic results.” It was the second time in a row the plant had obtained this recognition.
The recognition of Manalit, a Russian-owned producer primarily based in Belarus, got here because the plant grow to be a vital provider of high-reliability digital elements for missiles, radars, and plane utilized by Russia in its struggle towards Ukraine.
Within the primary two years of Russia’s full-scale aggression towards Ukraine, which started in February 2022, Manalit’s annual earnings elevated practically sixfold, pushed virtually solely by navy exports to Russia.
Military-grade capacitors produced by the Vitsebsk-based Manalit plant.
Manalit’s historical past mirrors that of many in Belarus’s heavy business. Founded within the Soviet period as a significant producer of ceramic capacitors, the plant fell into disaster within the Nineteen Nineties as demand collapsed. By 2009, it was close to full liquidation.
In 2011, salvation and transformation got here from its former competitor: the Kulon plant in Russia’s second-largest metropolis, St. Petersburg. Russian traders acquired a 51 % controlling stake, successfully turning Manalit into an offshore manufacturing base for Russia’s protection business.
Capacitors Built for War
Manalit makes a speciality of multilayer ceramic capacitors of outstanding sturdiness, licensed to be used in navy and area functions.
“Ninety-seven percent of our output serves Russia’s defense industry, ” Manalit’s director, Alyaksandr Shumakher, wascitedby BelTA state news company as saying in November 2020.
In 2024, Vitsebsk Regional Executive Committee Chairman Alyaksandr Subotsin famous that the plant was “operating systematically” and had proven outcomes over the earlier two years that “could not fail to satisfy.”
Vitsebsk Regional Executive Committee Chairman Alyaksandr Subotsin (left), plant director Alyaksandr Shumakher (heart), and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Manalit plant Akif Hasymau (proper) throughout a go to to the manufacturing facility in March 2024.
Capacitors like Manalit’s K10-84 sequence usually are not meant for shopper electronics. Instead, they’re present in missile steerage methods, radar arrays, digital warfare modules, and nuclear management methods, the place failure can imply the lack of a mission or weapon.
A Loophole In Sanctions
Western sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 after the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea reduce off direct entry to superior Western electronics for navy use.
But Belarus was not topic to the identical restrictions till 2022. For practically eight years, Manalit exploited this hole, importing gear and supplies from Europe and the United States, then delivery completed elements to Russia to interchange banned Western elements.
A machine from the Slovenian firm KEKO that was manufactured in April 2024 seems in a Manalit workshop.
Even right now, regardless of EU and US sanctions, Manalit is allowed to buy Slovenian KEKO manufacturing strains, equip them with Japanese Pro-face management panels (owned by France’s Schneider Electric), and proceed sourcing American precious-metal powders for capacitor manufacturing.
Evidence In The Debris Of War
According to a specialist from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), Manalit-made K10-84 capacitors have been present in Russia’s Iskander ballistic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles, Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles, S-200 and S-300 air-defense missiles, in addition to Zoopark counter-battery radar methods.
“The air-pressure system in Kh-101 missiles, all the capacitors, and 80 percent of the microchips are Belarusian-made. As for the control blocks in the 2024-model Iskanders, almost every capacitor in them is from Manalit,” the specialist advised RFE/RL.
An electrical circuit board from the particles of a Russian Iskander missile present in Ukraine in 2022. Yellow elements are the capacitors. Also seen are microchips from the Belarusian plant Integral and a chip from the American firm Texas Instruments.
Links To The Kremlin
Manalit’s exports to Russia are funneled by means of a single seller: Spetselektronkomplekt (SpecEk), a significant provider to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Customs information obtained by RFE/RL and the Belarusian Investigative Center present that from October 2022 to March 2025, Manalit shipped $43 million value of products to SpecEk, 96 % of it ceramic capacitors.
SpecEk is registered in Russia’s closed registry of protection contractors, which lists suppliers to the next companions in Russia:
Rostec:An umbrella for 350 protection enterprises, producing 40 % of Russia’s state arms orders.
Almaz-Antey:Themaker of the S-300, S-400, Buk, and Tor missile methods.
KRET:Electronic warfare methods
UAC:Su, MiG, and Tupolev plane
Tactical Missiles Corporation:Precision missiles, together with the Kh-101
UralVagonZavod:Main battle tank manufacturing
Russian Helicopters:Mi-8, Ka-52, Mi-35 gunships
Inside one of many workshops at Manalit
War Profits, Sanctions
Before the full-scale struggle started in 2022, Manalit’s annual earnings have been round $1.4 million. By 2024, internet revenue was as much as $6.2 million. The firm has seen development over the previous 5 years of over 460 %.
It has achieved record-breaking earnings throughout the bloodiest battle in Europe since World War II.
In May 2023, Ukraine sanctioned Manalit for “directly facilitating Russian military aggression.” Meanwhile, neither the EU nor the United States has adopted swimsuit, leaving the corporate with open entry to Western suppliers.
This has successfully made Manalit a “sanctions gateway,” a Belarusian authorized entity delivering Western know-how to Russia’s navy.
Emergency employees carry a fraction of a Russian Iskander-Ok cruise missile that struck a residential constructing in Kyiv on August 1.
Since falling beneath Russian management in 2011, Manalit has been modernized with Western gear, maintained open entry to European and US uncooked supplies, and secured Russian navy certification. It additionally provided capacitors present in missiles which have struck a number of Ukrainian cities.
As Western governments debate new sanctions, the capacitors made in a quiet Belarusian manufacturing facility proceed their journey from Vitsebsk’s meeting strains to Russia’s missile crops, and at last, to the skies over Ukraine.
The investigation was carried out with the help of info from the Ukrainian challenge Slidstvo.Info and the Belarusian Investigative Center.