Belarusian defense ministry denies enlistment offices increasing paper purchases

November 15, BPN. Military enlistment offices have not increased purchases of paper products. Procurement is in line with annual standards, the Belarusian defense ministry has said.

It was commenting on a report by the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff about the Brest region’s enlistment offices buying enrollment forms.

The Belarusian ministry said plans were made in 2021 to buy over 1 million blank and printed copies.

For instance, they are used to summon prospective draftees to update their files, notify them about training or conscript them into the army, but this has nothing to do with “mobilization,” as implied by the Ukrainians, it said.

The Brest region’s military enlistment office has invited bids as it seeks to order 50,000 enrollment forms, a public procurement website said. The forms are to be delivered before December 30.

The same office plans to buy 180,000 forms titled “Personal Notice Mob.,” and 73,000 forms “Mobilization Order to Person Subject to Military Service…”

On October 21, at the Abuz-Lasnoŭski military training ground, Brest region, Alaksandr Łukašenka said that there is no “mobilization” and that Belarus does not need war.

Since October 15, Russian troops have been arriving in the country to form, together with the Belarusian military, the Union State’s regional group of forces.

Łukašenka has repeatedly said that Belarus supports Russia’s “military operation” without “killing anyone.” In July, he publicly acknowledged that Ukraine had been invaded from Belarus by a 20,000-strong Russian group. The group was later defeated and withdrew from captured areas.