News & Events in Belarus

BARANOVICHI DISTRICT, 19 October (BelTA) – The system used to train military personnel in Belarus needs to be improved. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko gave the relevant instructions during the revision of professional skills and competence of Belarusian army officers in the Obuz-Lesnovsky combined arms exercise area on 19 October, BelTA has learned.

The head of state said: “I am not going to dispute the notion that the system exists but it’s a fact that we haven’t shaken it up for a long time and haven’t adjusted it to modern warfare. We have problems with training time, curricula and instructors. We need to recruit highly skilled personnel from regular army units so that they could teach the rest what is needed during a war.”

The President made it clear that military personnel training practices have to be constantly adjusted to modern reality. The instruction applies not only to educational institutions dedicated solely to training military specialists and officers but also to military departments in civil universities. “The State Secretariat needs to set up a group of specialists to analyze everything, weed out the unnecessary things from the curricula, optimize training times, and take a look at part-time education in order to evaluate whether we need it or not. Officers have been known to criticize it,” noted the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko also pointed out that the system used to train and check competence levels of Belarusian army officers needs a brush-up, too. “Formalism would be most dreadful. We don’t want to return to the state of affairs we had in the Soviet times,” said the President. “I want skills of officers tested. I don’t want prodigies but I myself spent time running, jumping, doing chin-ups, and training with soldiers. I know what officers should be like. Make them so.”

The head of state underlined: “We cannot indulge in self-complacency. We are not the country that can condone slipups and be satisfied with showing off. Officers must know how to train their subordinates. It is what matters.”