MINSK, 5 August (BelTA) – The number of participants of the Zapad 2021 army exercise in Belarus' territory will be about 12,800 people, BelTA learned from Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus Viktor Gulevich during a media briefing on 5 August.
Viktor Gulevich said: “The number of participants taking part in the exercise in Belarus' territory will be close to 12,800 people, including about 2,500 Russian military personnel and up to 50 Kazakh military personnel from the Collective Security Treaty Organization's collective rapid response forces. Of them about 6,300 people will be affected by the 2011 Vienna Document [on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures], including slightly more than 3,700 people from Belarus and about 2,500 people from the Russian Federation. Up to 350 armored fighting vehicles will be deployed as well, including about 140 tanks, 110 artillery and MLRS systems, over 30 aircraft and vehicles. The OSCE member states were notified about it in accordance with the 2011 Vienna Document on 30 July 2021.”
The Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad 2021 is a scheduled one and represents the final stage in the joint training of Belarusian and Russian armed forces this year. It is primarily designed to increase training levels of the regional military group, which is meant to ensure security in the Eastern Europe region.
In line with the training plan the exercise will take place in Belarus and nine army exercise areas in Russia (Kirillovsky, Strugi Krasnyye, Mulino, Pogonovo, Khmelevka, Pravdinsky, Dobrovolsky, Dorogobuzh, Volsky) on 10-16 September.
The concept of the exercise is purely defensive. The concept was developed taking into account modern approaches to the deployment of forces (troops) based on the experience of recent armed conflicts, combat training events, and troops deployment forms and methods, which have been worked out by the Belarusian army and the Russian one.
