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Lukashenko approves Belarusian-Russian regional battle group deployment plan
MINSK, 10 December (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has approved the plan on deploying the Belarusian-Russian regional battle group. Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich made the statement after presenting a report to the head of state on 10 December, BelTA has learned.
According to Aleksandr Volfovich, the relevant work has been done in Russia as well. Now the plan on deploying the regional battle group will be forwarded for consideration of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
The deployment plan was developed by the general staffs of Belarus and Russia taking into account projections of the strategic situation and the military and political one. Aleksandr Volfovich stressed that the regional battle group is primarily viewed as a tool of strategic deterrence and as a means to repulse a large-scale aggression against the Union State of Belarus and Russia. “We have a peaceful country. We consider only matters that are relevant for our country’s defense. Naturally we will not surrender it to anyone. But we make provisions for and evaluate how potential enemies will act. This is why response options have been adjusted taking into account the information we have today, including the sequence of initialization and the areas of deployment of the army units that will come from Russia in order to accomplish joint tasks. They were assigned different areas according to the previous plan. The areas and the tasks are slightly different this time taking into account projections of the situation,” the officer explained.
The revised plan has also adjusted the composition of the regional battle group. “The structure, the hardware, and the weapons have changed over the course of five years. Both the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus now have new samples. We are never idle, we buy new hardware. It offers more powerful combat capabilities. We focus on buying products of our defense industry but we also buy things from the Russian Federation. Because we will have to work together, with our Russian brothers, this is why our weapons have to be the same, have to be compatible,” the chief of the General Staff explained.
BelTA reported earlier that Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich presented proposals on revising the deployment plan of the Belarusian-Russian regional battle group to Aleksandr Lukashenko earlier on 10 December.
The president reminded that an agreement had been previously reached on updating the plan of deployment of the joint battle group taking into account the situation on western borders and the world as a whole. “Today I would like to hear about new things concerning the revised documents and what else we will have to do if necessary because the situation is being aggravated. Whatever we may say here, however the U.S. leadership and now the NATO leadership may try to lullaby us. They are making excuses, they say it is nothing of the kind, they say it is a simple military exercise. But we are military people. Even if it is only an exercise, it means they exercise for something. This is why we must not calm down. Even if we have a truly powerful army behind our back, the world’s second strongest army as they say. Nevertheless, we must not calm down,” the Belarusian leader said.
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