Veyshnoryia, Vesbaryia, Lubeniya: Zapad-2017 is rehearsal of war against Poland, Lithuania

The Zapad-2017 war game is round the corner: the Belarusian Defense Ministry revealed its scenario on Tuesday.

‘Veyshnoryia’, ‘Vesbaryia’ and ‘Lubeniya’ attack Belarus and Russia. The enemy is conditional, but one can easily recognize the areas plotted on the map – Poland, Lithuania, Western Belarus.

Troubling legend

According to the scenario, the opposing forces are located within the actual borders of Belarus. The situation deteriorated ‘because of the intentions to destabilize the state of affairs in Belarus’ and ‘worsen relations in the Union State of Belarus and Russia’.

“We fail to understand the mass media hype surrounding the Zapad 2017 exercise, For example, NATO’s multinational exercise Anaconda 2016, which was the largest one on record since the end of the Cold War. Representatives of 24 countries took part in that exercise. All the main parameters of NATO’s Anaconda 2016 exercise in Poland exceeded the parameters of the Zapad 2017 exercise several times over,” Belarusian First Deputy Defense Minister, Chief of the General Staff Aleh Belakoneu said.

Mr Belakoneu will supervise the exercise on behalf of the Belarusian side.

Nearly 13,000 troops is reported to participate in the exercise

Notably, the Zapad war game will be held in the territory of Russia alongside with the exercise in Belarus. And there will be far more soldiers involved.

Moreover, the residents of Russian regions adjacent to the sites where the war game will take place have been called up. A number of Belarusians are facing the same situation.

“People are distracted from harvesting! I am a villager, I have to get the crops in, I have got a lot on my plate! But still, I have to take part in this training,” Uladzimir Talpeka, a resident of Hlybokaye, says.

Ministry: Exercises is purely defensive

The Belarusian top brass warn against NATO aggression, military exercises in Ukraine, ‘Right Sector’ and say that the military and political situation in the region is troubled.

However, according to Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, Russia carries out three times more exercises than NATO countries do. The Belarusian Chief of General Staff might have promised that Russian troops would leave Belarus by September 30, but a lot of Belarusian have great doubts about that remembering Russia’s behavior over the recent years.

Belsat.eu