Russia and Belarus to Hold Joint Strategic Military Exercises in September

The Russian and Belarusian armies are preparing to conduct joint strategic exercises on the territory of Belarus from September 12 to 16, The Gaze reports, citing Reuters.

The stated goal of the exercises is to test the military capabilities of Russia and Belarus and to ensure the military security of the Union State and their readiness to counter possible aggression.

The Union State is a supranational entity comprising Russia and Belarus with a gradually organized unified political, economic, military, customs, currency, legal, humanitarian, market, and cultural space.

This formation is based on a preliminary agreement between Russia and Belarus, which was signed back in 1997. Since then, the process of building the “state” has begun, and Russian President Putin has repeatedly stated that he considers Belarus to be his “closest ally.”

Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia might be planning something in Belarus under the guise of scheduled military exercises. 

Recently, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that joint Belarusian-Russian exercises had been moved away from the country's western borders due to security concerns on the part of Poland and the Baltic states. He dismissed suggestions that the exercises could be used to attack these countries as “complete nonsense.”

At the same time, Belarusian Major General Revenko noted that these exercises serve as a pretext for increased militarization in neighboring NATO countries. He stressed that this is happening amid the planned large-scale joint NATO exercises in Poland, involving at least 34,000 military personnel.

As The Gaze informed earlier, Belarus has indicated it might partly shift the location of the 'Zapad (West) 2025' military drills, despite earlier pledges to move them deeper into the country, accusing Poland and Lithuania of so-called aggressive conduct.