{"id":140269,"date":"2025-05-28T14:14:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T11:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/140269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"defense-official-emphasizes-minsks-openness-on-zapad-2025-drill","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/140269\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense official emphasizes Minsk\u2019s openness on Zapad-2025 drill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>May 28, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> The scaled-down Zapad-2025 exercise will involve fewer troops than the threshold required for notification under the Vienna Document but Belarus will notify other states anyway, Valeryj Ravienka of Belarus\u2019 defense ministry has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minsk will invite observers to demonstrate the exercise\u2019s defensive nature, he noted in a video address posted by the defense ministry\u2019s press office on social media today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Vienna Document, to which Belarus is a party, requires the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) member states to exchange information on their armed forces, weapons and defense planning as well as drills involving more than 9,000 troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poland and other NATO countries are reluctant to engage with Minsk on exercise, Ravienka charged, noting that engagement would allow critics to assess the scale of maneuvers, elements to be practiced and troops involved and make sure that Belarus does not violate any international commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minsk and Moscow have decided to nearly half the number of troops to be involved in the upcoming joint Zapad-2025 military exercise and move major maneuvers away from Belarus\u2019 western borders, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktar Chrenin said yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The announcement came two weeks after Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka described Zapad-2025 as a defensive drill, stressing that Belarus is not going \u201cto attack anyone, as some people there [in the West] think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exercise\u2019s plan was approved \u201cback in April\u201d with the number of participants slashed by almost half, Ravienka said on X earlier today, commenting on Chrenin\u2019s announcement. However, neither specified the exact updated number of troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 13,000 soldiers were originally expected to participate in the maneuvers scheduled for September in Belarus and synchronized with an exercise by the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. Minsk reportedly notified all the Vienna Document participating states of plans to host it, its timeframe and troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned that Moscow may use the exercise as a pretext to mass troops in Belarus for an attack on a European Union country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys said earlier this year 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 drill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 28, Pozirk. The scaled-down Zapad-2025 exercise will involve fewer troops than the threshold required for notification under the Vienna Document but Belarus will notify other states anyway, Valeryj Ravienka of Belarus\u2019 defense ministry has said. Minsk will invite observers to demonstrate the exercise\u2019s defensive nature, he noted in a video address posted by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":85988,"template":"","rubric":[16,30],"class_list":["post-140269","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics","rubric-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defense official emphasizes Minsk\u2019s openness on Zapad-2025 drill | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 28, Pozirk. The scaled-down Zapad-2025 exercise will involve fewer troops than the threshold required for notification under the Vienna Document but\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/140269\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defense official emphasizes Minsk\u2019s openness on Zapad-2025 drill | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 28, Pozirk. 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