Zapad-2017 no threat to neighbours. Russian forces will leave Belarus by 30 Sept - General Staff Chief


The Russian army forces will leave Belarus’ territory by 30 September, Chief of the General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Aleh Belakoneu said on Tuesday.

“The forthcoming exercise will be purely defensive. It is posing no threat to the European community as a whole or neighboring countries in particular. The exercise will allow improving the joint usage of the defense infrastructure for the sake of military security of the Union State of Belarus and Russia,” he stressed.

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

“Once the exercise is over, by 30 September the personnel, weapon systems, military and special hardware of the Belarusian army will return to their permanent stations while the Russian army forces will leave Belarus’ territory. And in this regard I wonder what they [critics of Zapad-2017] will say next?,” he stressed.

He also noted that there had never been any rumours about Belarus’ invading Russia when Belarusian soldiers participated in military exercises in the territory of Russia, Belakoneu called assumptions of Belarus’ and Russia’s intention to start a war with its neighbors ‘biased’ and ‘not serious’.

“4,000 wagons may hold one and a half motorized infantry divisions. One will not be able to launch an aggression and occupy territory with the help of such [weak] forces. Only a paranoid and crazy daredevil of fortune could take the plunge,” he added.

The Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad-2017 scheduled for September, 14-20 is supposed to demonstrate ‘persistence in efforts to ensure security of the two brotherly nations’. Such exercises are held in Belarus and Russia interchangeably every two years. In September, there will be about 10,000 troops involved in the exercise in the Belarusian territory (7,200 – the Belarusian Armed Forces and about 3,000 – the Russian Army).

At the same time, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite and a number of European politicians believe that the ‘West-2017’ demonstrates the preparation of Belarus and Russia to the war with the West. In mid April, Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, stressed that the joint military exercise might become the preparation for an assault against Ukraine in September. In turn, Belarusian democratic circles fear that Russian troops will not come back home after the war game.

belsat.eu, following BelTA

TWITTER