General: decision to scale down Zapad-2025 not a weakness

July 23, Pozirk. Belarus’ Chief of the General Staff, Pavieł Muraviejka has said that Belarus might deploy “individual units” to its western border during Zapad-2025, a Belarusian-Russian large-scale exercise coming up in September.

The deployment may be needed to practice “defensive episodes,” the major general said in a press statement today, according to the Ministry of Defense.

Muraviejka said Belarus had moved the exercise inland to “reassure the international community.”

“I must note that this process should not be seen as our weakness or submissiveness, or a reaction to some complaints. This is just a step to stabilize the situation and reassure the international community,” he noted.

He criticized plans by Poland to hold a division-level exercise close to Hrodna and Lithuania for planning to redeploy its Iron Wolf brigade to the Pabrade training ground, as a response to the maneuvers in Belarus.

The general went on to say that preparations for the Russian-Belarusian exercise are in their final stage.

“We are ready to receive arriving troops to conduct drills and practice a full range of combat training missions,” he stated.

Muraviejka stressed that the drills will be defensive, and that Minsk and Moscow had agreed to cut the number of troops involved by half.

He said the army plans to use “all the latest achievements of modern military art, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare systems, and various robotic and automated systems.” It also plans to practice “modern methods of air and anti-drone defense.”

According to him, Belarus prepares to invite international observers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, countries of the “far-arc” (a reference to Asia, Africa and Latin America), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as military attaches accredited in Belarus.

Also read: Zapad-2025 moved inland, scaled down, Łukašenka confirms