3 Jul 2026
,Germany
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, during a working trip to the Shklov district, stated the need for a systematic transition of the country to heating with pellets and firewood. According to him, natural gas should serve only as a reserve fuel — in case of peak loads — and cannot remain the main source of heat.
The statement was made during a visit to the reconstructed agroservice, where the president was shown a boiler house operating on wood pellets. Lukashenko assessed what he saw as a model suitable for replication throughout the country.
“That’s right. Gradually and persistently, we must switch to heating with pellets, firewood, and so on,” the Belarusian leader’s press service quotes him as saying.
Thus, the transition to local biofuel was presented not as an initiative of a single enterprise, but as a national task. Lukashenko particularly emphasized that Belarus possesses sufficient volumes of its own wood raw materials and production capacities for manufacturing pellets.
Separately, the president addressed export-related issues. According to him, despite high pellet prices in Poland, Belarusian products are not being purchased there.
“Look, the Poles currently have sky-high prices for pellets. They’re not buying. Well, suit yourselves. The pellets are needed here. We need to heat homes in Belarus,” Lukashenko said.
From this, the president drew a clear conclusion: instead of seeking external markets, pellets should be directed toward domestic consumption. The new fuel paradigm outlined by Lukashenko envisions reliance on local renewable raw materials, while gas and other fossil energy sources are retained exclusively as a backup option.
