BORISOV, 4 February (BelTA) – The inspection of the Armed Forces, conducted on the president’s order, continues in one of the units of the 72nd joint training center for warrant officers and junior specialists, BelTA has learned.
“According to the plan approved by the Commander‑in‑Chief, the inspection of a number of formations and military units continues. The inspection is unannounced. We are checking not only combat units for their readiness to carry out their assigned tasks (we recently finished inspecting one of the mechanized brigades). Today, a comprehensive group consisting of officials from the State Secretariat of the Security Council and the State Control Committee arrived at one of the military units where equipment is kept in storage. This equipment is intended for units that would be formed in wartime,” State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich said.
“According to the plan approved by the Commander‑in‑Chief, the inspection of a number of formations and military units continues. The inspection is unannounced. We are checking not only combat units for their readiness to carry out their assigned tasks (we recently finished inspecting one of the mechanized brigades). Today, a comprehensive group consisting of officials from the State Secretariat of the Security Council and the State Control Committee arrived at one of the military units where equipment is kept in storage. This equipment is intended for units that would be formed in wartime,” State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich said.
He noted that proper storage of equipment is an important aspect of combat readiness. “We do not deploy or expand the Armed Forces in peacetime, unlike our neighbors in Poland and Lithuania. Nevertheless, we are prepared to expand our Armed Forces, as the Commander‑in‑Chief has said, to the size necessary to defend the state. For this, we must have properly serviced models of weapons and military equipment. This is standard global practice,” Aleksandr Volfovich emphasized.
The comprehensive group will check the conditions in which the equipment is stored, whether the full set of procedures for long‑term storage has been completed, whether it is fueled, and other issues. “A task has been set and an order issued to the commander of the 72nd training center to remove several samples of military equipment from storage. That is, each subdivision will remove two or three units: tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, trucks, and others. After that, a control run will be carried out,” the state secretary stressed.
Chairman of the State Control Committee of Belarus Vasily Gerasimov noted that for him and for the employees of his agency, this is not the first inspection of military units. In addition to snap inspections ordered by the president, the commitee’s staff have visited units where they examined all aspects, from procurement procedures to equipment storage.
The comprehensive group will check the conditions in which the equipment is stored, whether the full set of procedures for long‑term storage has been completed, whether it is fueled, and other issues. “A task has been set and an order issued to the commander of the 72nd training center to remove several samples of military equipment from storage. That is, each subdivision will remove two or three units: tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, trucks, and others. After that, a control run will be carried out,” the state secretary stressed.
Chairman of the State Control Committee of Belarus Vasily Gerasimov noted that for him and for the employees of his agency, this is not the first inspection of military units. In addition to snap inspections ordered by the president, the commitee’s staff have visited units where they examined all aspects, from procurement procedures to equipment storage.
According to Aleksandr Volfovich, a preliminary inspection showed that the servicemen approached the issues of preserving and storing the equipment responsibly. “All units are kept in storage facilities under shelters and are fueled. The final results will be summarized a bit later,” he added.He also gave a preliminary assessment of the previous inspection. “We inspected only one subdivision from the combat units. The servicemen demonstrated quite decent results, showing endurance and the ability to use their weapons and equipment both during the day and at night, using modern Belarusian sights. There are shortcomings, and they will be analyzed and reviewed. But that will come later. We still have a lot of work ahead. We alternate inspections of combat units with inspections of units where equipment is stored. Where we go next will be determined by the Commander‑in‑Chief,” the state secretary noted.
Aleksandr Volfovich pointed out that inspections ordered by the president and those planned by the Defense Ministry are taking place simultaneously.
“There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about this. Yesterday, by the way, the head of state clearly explained why this is happening. The president, as Commander‑in‑Chief, made a decision regarding an unannounced inspection of the Armed Forces to assess the readiness of our units to carry out their assigned tasks. But there are also plans for sudden inspections of other units under the authority of the Minister of Defense. These plans have been coordinated by the commission of the State Secretariat of the Security Council. We are not interfering with or disrupting the Minister of Defense’s plans to inspect a number of formations and military units,” he summarized.
As BelTA previously reported, a large-scale inspection of the Armed Forces on the instructions of the head of state began on 16 January. Aleksandr Lukashenko is personally monitoring its progress. A new system has been implemented that allows the president to directly place military units on combat readiness, circumventing the Defense Ministry and the General Staff. The main aim of these inspections is to gain an objective assessment. This is precisely why they are carried out without prior notice.
Photos by Maksim Guchek/ BelTA
