Minsk (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Belarusian Defence Ministry announced on Tuesday that the Russian and Belarusian armies will conduct joint strategic exercises in Belarus from September 12-16. These drills aim to assess Russia and Belarus’s capabilities, ensure the military security of the Union State, and prepare for potential aggression.
The exercises aim to test the capabilities of Russia and Belarus to’ ensure the military security of the Union State and their preparedness to counter potential aggression,’ the ministry noted, with Major General Valery Revenko stating this. The Union State is a borderless alliance between the two former Soviet republics and neighbours.
Revenko, the Major General, stated that the Belarusian-Russian exercises are “being used as a pretext for ongoing militarisation” in neighbouring NATO nations, pointing to upcoming joint NATO drills in Poland that will involve at least 34,000 troops.
During a recent interview, Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, said he plans to move the joint military exercises from Belarus’ western borders with EU nations due to certain “security questions” raised by Poland and the Baltic states. Lukashenko denied that Belarus was about to attack the three Baltic states and Poland out of the exercise, calling it “total nonsense.”
How is Ukraine responding to the Russian presence in Belarus?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made serious statements about Russia’s activity in Belarus, specifically regarding joint military exercises. He said Russia is “preparing something” in Belarus under the pretence of routine exercises, which have historically been used as a pretext for mobilising aggressive military action.
Zelensky endorses Western intelligence being aware of what the Russians want and asserts the necessity for countries to come together to tackle possible problems both not only to Ukraine but and possible problems to NATO countries, for example, Lithuania, Poland, or other countries in between.
What was the scope of previous military exercises with these countries?
Russia and Belarus have ongoing military exercises like “Zapad.” The definition of Zapad has typically been a large and grandly staged military exercise by Russia and Belarus at least every four years, taking turns hosting the exercise.
The most recent exercise was conducted from September 10-15, 2021, called “Zapad-21″, which reportedly had approximately 200,000 troops participate and approximately 760 pieces of military equipment consisting of tanks, artillery, and aircraft.” Also, for the first time ever, robots, such as the “Uran-9,” participated in combat formations. The exercise, which lasted 6 days, was both a defensive readiness exercise and, according to some experts, a precursor to Russian military operations in Ukraine.
