Russia and Belarus plan joint military exercises

Belarusian state agency Belta reported on Friday that Russia and Belarus are preparing for large new military moves.

“We plan to jointly develop measures to resist the coalition states,” according to Berta, which combines Russia and Belarus.

He said the exercise, known as Zapad-2025, or West-2025 in English, would be the main event in combat training for regional forces. The agency said the mobility is scheduled to take place in mid-September.

Belarus plans to carry out many action plans this year, including joint operations with Russian allies.

Belta decided on the practice at the presidential level and said at a meeting with Belousov that so did Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. “We are not going to attack anyone,” he said.

At the Munich security conference in February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cited intelligence sources, saying the Kremlin was planning to move troops to Belarus. He said the deployment would be disguised as a joint military operation.

Minsk and Moscow are close allies. When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of neighboring countries, Lukashko allowed Russian troops to attack his country.

The deployment of Russian troops across Ukraine, including Belarusian territory, was subsequently announced. Later, Putin stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

In the past, Russia and Belarus conducted military exercises under the name of Zappad. According to Russian information at the time, during the large-scale manipulation in 2021, combat equipment involved as many as 200,000 people and hundreds of units.

NATO criticized the military exercise.