MINSK, 10 August (BelTA) – The second stage of a tactical exercise involving military personnel of the Western Operational Command took place in the exercise area Gozhsky. State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, and Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus Anatoly Lappo watched the exercise, representatives of the Belarusian Defense Ministry told BelTA.
According to Aleksandr Volfovich, border service units and army units practiced finding and eliminating an illegal armed unit that had infiltrated into Belarus. A motorized rifle company of the 6th Independent Guards Mechanized Brigade was attached to the local border guard unit. The official said: “Today we saw how smoothly border guard personnel worked together with army units. While talking to the draftees I was pleased to see that they understand why they have been recalled to active service and understand that if men don't protect the country, nobody else will. Certainly, we don't want harvester drivers, farmers, blue-collar workers to stop doing their jobs when we have regular border service units. But if need be and if some danger threatens the country, we will protect it.”
In his words, the exercise was a planned one. “It once again demonstrates our responsible attitude to protecting our country. In addition to improving the physical border security infrastructure we certainly pay close attention to training the personnel – not only border service officers but border service soldiers, who work every day to protect our borders. Moreover, today's situation probably requires even more attention to these matters. Criticism of some European colleagues who claim we've stopped protecting the state border is baseless. Today's scheduled exercise is another proof,” the state secretary noted.
Participants of the exercise practiced finding, detecting, blocking, and eliminating an armed unit that had infiltrated into Belarus from another country. The drill proceeded in complicated and dynamic conditions in order to imitate a real situation. A motorized rifle company of the 6th Independent Guards Mechanized Brigade acted as support on the left flank of the battle formation.
Close support aircraft of the Air Force and Air Defense Command carried out a strike against the simulated enemy. The enemy was blocked and eliminated in a firefight and a consequent search and destroy operation.
The army units and the border service units demonstrated high professionalism and combat skills, cohesion and field training.
