MINSK, 18 January (BelTA) – The Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad 2021 [West 2021] will take place on 10-16 September, BelTA learned from Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin.
The official said: “The concept of the exercise is based on a possible variant of the escalation of the military and political situation with regard to a simulated state. The exercise is supposed to take place over the course of seven days from 10 September through 16 September. Upon the proposal of our Russian colleagues the exercise will take place in the territory of the two countries, which will allow practicing the application of the Belarusian-Russian regional army group and the organization of army operations.”
A number of matters relating to the deployment of joint assault teams in an urbanized area will be practiced during the exercise. The performance of new and modernized military hardware specimens will be evaluated.
Viktor Khrenin confirmed that they intend to invite representatives of Western countries to observe the exercise. “We will certainly invite them. They will be free to watch it. We are open and ready to demonstrate the state of our armed forces and the level of our training,” he said.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Belarusian defense minister also informed Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko about results of implementation of the plan on building and developing the Armed Forces in 2016-2020. In this period as part of optimization efforts the Defense Ministry managed to get rid of intermediate control bodies, which do not affect the quality of mission fulfillment. Over 450 units of hardware were commissioned. Over 250 units of hardware underwent major overhaul and modernization. New specimens and sets of weapons were bought including four Su-30SM combat aircraft, eight Yak-130 combat and training aircraft, 12 Mi-8 helicopters, multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) Polonez, air defense missile systems Tor-M2, unmanned aerial complexes, modern communications and navigation solutions, radar stations, small arms, and protective gear. On the whole, in this period the army implemented all the plans it had set out to accomplish. It allowed enhancing the combat ability of the troops, bringing their combat abilities into compliance with the nature of existing and projected threats to military security.
