Instead of one: Two combat and training centres set up in Belarus jointly with Russia
The decision to establish joint training centres – two in Russia and one in Belarus – was taken during the talks of Belarusian Defence Minister Viktar Khrenin and Sergei Shoigu on March 5 in Moscow.
For the moment, there have been reports about the establisment of two such centres in Belarus. According to Shoigu, their work has already been tested during the recent military drills Zapad-2021.
“In the course of the exercise, we checked the functioning of two combat training centres for the Air Force and Air-to-Air Defence which are being created in Belarus as well as the organisation of combat duty in the Unified Regional Air Defence System of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” news agency Interfax quotes Sergei Shoigu.
It has not been specified of what kind a second training centre is and when its creation was agreed upon. As far back as late August, the Belarusian state media wrote about only one training and combat centre in Hrodna which was being set up together with Russia.
Since 2013, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been fending off the proposal to have a Russian military base in our country. But a number of military experts believe it is the Russian bases that are being deployed under the guise of training centres in Belarus.
In early September, Lukashenka announced that Russia would supply ‘dozens of planes, helicopters and air defense systems’ to Belarus.
