Minsk seeks to \u201cshake up\u201d its military and get it ready for a potential war, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said<\/p>\n
Belarus will bolster its military combat readiness and could even announce \u201cmobilization\u201d to test it, President Alexander Lukashenko has said.
\nThe Belarusian leader made the remarks on Friday when he toured the Obuz-Lesnovsky military training grounds near the city of Baranovichi in the west of the country. During his visit, Lukashenko met top military officials and inspected communications and control systems. The president said that he was set to continue vetting the country\u2019s forces, revealing that an artillery brigade and signal troops are currently undergoing extensive inspections.\u00a0
\n\u201cI\u2019ve already put it in plain terms: the army needs a shake-up \u2013 the time has come. The entire army. We will vet everyone. Right up to the point of mobilization,\u201d Lukashenko told reporters.
\nThe vetting process is set to be as close to real war conditions as possible, he added. \u201cWe are preparing for war so that it does not happen,\u201d the Belarusian leader stated.<\/p>\n
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Speaking to senior military officials, the president reiterated that Minsk was not seeking to attack anyone but only to bolster its defenses. \u201cWe have no intention of attacking anyone; we are pragmatists. We understand that attacking anyone \u2013 say, one of our neighbors \u2013 would be tantamount to suicide. We cannot win a conflict against the \u2018monsters\u2019 \u2013 the states situated along our borders,\u201d he said.
\nWhile it was not immediately clear which countries exactly Lukashenko described as \u201cmonsters,\u201d most of the Belarusian neighbors\u2019 militaries greatly surpass its capabilities. Minsk maintains a modestly sized military of less than 50,000 active-duty servicemen, against some 1.5 million troops in Belarus\u2019 key ally, Russia. Ukraine, which has been locked in a conflict with Russia for over four years, is believed to have around 900,000 active-duty personnel.
\nOther neighbors of Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia are NATO member states. While the two Baltic nations have tiny militaries, Warsaw has been actively building up its force recently. Poland has some 220,000 active-duty troops and continues to expand the force as well as rearm it with modern weaponry. Numbers-wise, the country\u2019s military has become the third-largest within the NATO bloc, surpassed only by the US and T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minsk seeks to \u201cshake up\u201d its military and get it ready for a potential war, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said Belarus will bolster its military combat readiness and could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t