Belarus moves inland main maneuvers of joint “West” exercise with Russia

This was announced on Wednesday by Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin at a meeting of the CSTO Defense Ministers' Council in Bishkek, Ukrinform reports citing Zerkalo.io.

He believes that “in terms of intensity and scale” the West exercise has always been incompatible with European NATO exercises, but the very fact of its conduct “causes template speculation on the part of representatives of the military and political leadership of individual European states.”

“Despite the fact that no steps have been taken to return to the implementation of a number of key arms control agreements with the Republic of Belarus, we have decided to reduce the parameters of the West 2025 exercise and move its main maneuvers deeper into the territory of the Republic of Belarus from the western borders,” Hrenin said.

According to him, Belarus is doing this to “confirm its readiness for dialogue, compromise and tension reduction” and to demonstrate to “allies and partners around the world the country's truly peaceful position.”

The head of the Department of International Military Cooperation of the Belarusian Defense Ministry, Valery Revenko, added that the revised plan of the exercise, which reduced the number of participants by almost half, was approved back in April.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Russian-Belarusian exercise West-2025 will take place in mid-September. More than 13 thousand military personnel will take part in the maneuvers.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrskyi, said that on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia deployed its troops in Belarus, so the Russian-Belarusian West-2025 exercises scheduled for the fall could be a cover for the creation of a new strike group.

Photo: Ministry of Defense of Belarus