In 2025, Belarus will host large-scale strategic exercises that may involve Russian troops.

The Belarusian monitoring group Belaruski Gayun reported on this.

The training of the regional grouping of troops was announced by Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin in an interview with Russian propaganda media.

On September 22-26, 2023, the Shield of the Union exercise was supposed to take place, but it was canceled. Prior to that, the Russian and Belarusian militaries had not announced joint exercises in 2024.

The monitoring group Belaruski Gayun reminds that from February 10 to 20, 2022, unscheduled Allied Resolve 2022 exercises took place in Belarus. Four days after they ended, Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

It is noted that Russia might not have enough soldiers and equipment to simultaneously wage war and conduct large-scale exercises.

For example, in September 2023, a very limited Russian contingent took part in the CSTO’s Combat Brotherhood 2023 exercise in Belarus.

In December 2023, Militarnyi reported that the Western Operational Command of Armed Forces of Belarus had launched the readiness inspection of the tank battalion of one of the mechanized brigades.

The main aspect of the inspection is the involvement of military personnel who previously served in tank units of the Western Military District.

During the exercises, the Belarusian tank unit practiced a march to overcome the water obstacle on the pontoon bridge, led by soldiers of the 557th Engineering Brigade.

The photos capture a T-72B with a welded-on “grill”, which had been demonstrated only once before, at least officially, on a modernized T-72BM2 in 2022.

As previously reported, Belarus introduced a counterterrorism operation on the border with Ukraine and is deploying units of Special Operations Forces.

On February 15, the Belarusian government announced the introduction of a counterterrorism operation in the border village of Lyelchytsy, Lyelchytsy district, Gomel region.

The settlement is located just 10 kilometers from the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.