Opinions & Interviews

Purely defensive nature of Belarusian-Russian army exercise Zapad 2021 emphasized

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MINSK, 5 August (BelTA) – The Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad 2021 [West 2021] does not threaten Europe and neighboring countries, BelTA learned from Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus Viktor Gulevich during a media briefing on 5 August.

Viktor Gulevich said: “The forthcoming Belarusian-Russian army exercise Zapad 2021 is purely defensive. Its organization does not represent a threat to the European community as a whole and to neighboring countries in particular. It will allow us to improve the procedure for the joint use of defensive infrastructure in practice. It will allow us to check the readiness and the ability of the regional military force to carry out missions.”

After the exercise ends, in the period till 30 September, Belarusian military personnel, weapons, military and special hardware will return to their permanent stations while Russian troops will leave Belarus’ territory.

The Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad 2021 is a scheduled one and represents the final stage in the joint training of Belarusian and Russian armed forces this year. It is primarily designed to increase training levels of the regional military group, which is meant to ensure security in the Eastern Europe region.

In line with the training plan the exercise will take place in Belarus and nine army exercise areas in Russia (Kirillovsky, Strugi Krasnyye, Mulino, Pogonovo, Khmelevka, Pravdinsky, Dobrovolsky, Dorogobuzh, Volsky) on 10-16 September. The concept of the exercise was developed taking into account modern approaches to the deployment of forces (troops) based on the experience of recent armed conflicts, combat training events, and troops deployment forms and methods, which have been worked out by the Belarusian army and the Russian one.

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