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MINSK, 12 September (BelTA) – The army exercise Zapad 2025 [West] is not directed against a specific country or countries, the press service of the Belarusian Defense Ministry quoted Chief of the General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister of the Republic of Belarus, Major-General Pavel Muraveiko as saying.
Pavel Muraveiko said: “Today we have started the joint strategic exercise Zapad 2025 of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus and of the Russian Federation. It is a scheduled event that we are holding in order to improve the ability of commanding officers to manage groups of forces in the course of carrying out missions relating to the defense of the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country.”
He pointed out that the exercise is not directed against some specific country or countries and is an event designed to prepare troops to carry out their missions.
“Apart from that, we pursue the goals of improving the practical readiness of command and control bodies and troops for joint actions in addition to improving the field skills of soldiers, non-commissioned personnel, and officers,” Pavel Muraveiko stressed.
According to the source, an important part of the goals of the exercise is to master new methods of modern warfare and to use the main measures to improve survivability, manageability, and measures to carry out missions in the course of combat operations.
“The exercise is supposed to have two stages. The first one provides for repulsing aerial attacks, for preparing for and carrying out defensive combat actions, and for enabling conditions for the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity. The second stage will involve a complex of events to destroy the enemy’s groupings and cleanse the territory. It is an important aspect of ensuring the security and defense of the country,” Pavel Muraveiko noted.
The exercise will take place in three military training areas and sectors of terrain in Vitebsk Oblast, Minsk Oblast, and Grodno Oblast.
“I’d like to warn against excessive insinuations and false accusations. All the events are taking place far from our southern and western borders. The factors that are present in modern armed conflicts represent a peculiarity of the exercise. Those are active jamming, use of drones at various stages of combat operations, preserving the survivability and control over units, the use of active jamming and artificial intelligence for making decisions,” the first deputy defense minister said.
During the exercise the troops will practice dispersal, concealment, preservation of command posts by exploiting folds in the terrain and the local infrastructure. As part of preparations for the exercise several weeks before today the troops went to the starting areas, prepared them from the engineering point of view, and enabled conditions for carrying out the main aspects of the exercise. As part of the exercise the troops will have to organize interaction with various branches of the armed forces and special forces.
“Today the first units will carry out combat firing as they practice fighting against unmanned aerial vehicles, against aerial attacks, and as they practice operating in mixed combat formations. Apart from that, we intend to consider and step up the use of robotized systems, artificial intelligence for coordinating actions of weapon systems, radioelectronic warfare, and actions of the troops on the battlefield,” Pavel Muraveiko said.
He also stressed that the Zapad 2025 exercise is not a threat to third countries but the desire to practice steps as part of training the Belarusian army together with allied armies.
“At the same time we actively track all the military activities going on near our borders and are ready to respond to any provocations that may emerge in the course of the exercise,” Pavel Muraveiko noted.
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