April 11, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has said that Minsk and Moscow will conduct joint large-scale maneuvers in Belarus in September to prepare for hostilities at “theaters of military operations” other than Ukraine.
“Despite the ongoing war, the special military operation, President Putin and I agreed that war is war but we need to look ahead and see other directions and possible theaters of military operations, God forbid. That’s why we will conduct these exercises for Belarus and Russia,” the Belarusian strongman told the Mir television network on Tuesday, commenting on preparation for the Zapad-2025 exercise. Clips from the interview were only published yesterday.
“For certain reasons, Belarus must play a major role. Because there is a big distraction now for Russian Federation troops. Well, it’s time for us to show that we can do a lot. Russian troops will be present here as well. So we will do everything to protect our common homeland from Brest to Vladivostok,” said Łukašenka, who supported Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and allowed Russian forces to march on Kyiv from Belarusian territory after the Allied Resolve exercise in 2022.
Several months ago, in an interview with the Rossiya television station, Łukašenka threatened the West to turn defensive plans into offensive ones.
The Zapad-2025 exercise would involve more than 13,000 troops, officials said. This major exercise will be synchronized with Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) drills.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys has warned today that the scale of Zapad exercises has always been far larger than declared, urging NATO to respond symmetrically to an increase in the number of Russian and Belarusian troops during the maneuvers.
