MINSK, 27 January (BelTA) – Chief of the General Staff of Belarus' Armed Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister, Major-General Viktor Gulevich hosted a briefing for attaches of foreign countries, who are accredited with the Belarusian Defense Ministry, and for mass media in the Central House of Officers in Minsk. The briefing was dedicated to the upcoming readiness test of the response forces of the Union State of Belarus and Russia that will take place in Belarus' territory, representatives of the Belarusian Defense Ministry told BelTA.
Viktor Gulevich said: “The test is going on in conditions of a complicated military and political situation. The recent events in Kazakhstan demonstrated the increased role of collective military and political unions in ensuring the national security of countries.”
The key result of the ongoing events will be an evaluation of the ability of military command and control bodies to carry out missions in order to ensure the military security of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
The readiness test includes two stages. The Belarusian-Russian army exercise Allied Resolve 2022 will take place during the final stage.
Viktor Gulevich noted: “In the course of working out the scenario of the readiness test we took into account an analysis of the events, which happened around our country in 2020. We took into account all the unfriendly messages and the unjustified concentration of troops as well as development of the crisis situation in Kazakhstan.”
The troops will travel by different means of transportation to staging areas and will arrange a number of unit shakedown events during the first stage of the readiness test till 10 February. Then they will move to designated areas to carry out combat training missions. Once the troops are relocated, units of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense Command and the Russian Aerospace Forces will begin joint air patrols.
Practicing the prompt concentration of forces to meet threat axes in a specific situation will be one of the key matters the troops will have to take care of during the first stage.
The readiness and the ability of the joint air defense combat training center to carry out combat training missions will be evaluated as well.
Apart from that, Viktor Gulevich stated that the Belarusian-Russian army exercise Allied Resolve 2022 will begin the active phase of the readiness test on 10 February. The exercise will focus on stopping and repulsing an external aggression in the course of a defensive operation in addition to counteracting terrorism and protecting interests of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
During the second stage attention will be primarily focused on defensive actions along designated lines in order to protect the state border of the Republic of Belarus, including in the southern direction. During the second stage the troops will also deliver fire strikes against invading enemy forces, including using live ammunition. Air Force units will carry out bomb strikes. During the final phase of the exercise the troops will practice the destruction of the enemy via counter-offensive actions.
Despite the unscheduled nature of the readiness test and the involvement of some military command and control bodies as well as army units the Belarusian army continues staging combat training events in line with this year's training plan.
The exercise represents the final stage of the joint readiness test of the response forces of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and is primarily designed to improve the fighting capacity of the troops.
Viktor Gulevich said: “The exercise, which will be held as part of the test, will be purely defensive and will present no threat to the European community as a whole and to neighboring countries in particular. It will allow improving the procedure for jointly using the defensive infrastructure in practice and will allow checking the readiness and the ability of designated forces to carry out missions.”
Once the readiness test is over, army units of the Russian Federation will leave Belarus' territory just the way they did after all the previous military exercises.
