Opposition to protest against holding Zapad-2017 war game in Belarus


The Belarusian National Congress (BNC) is organizing a protest rally on September 8 at 19:00 in Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk.

The participants will be protesting against ‘occupation from the inside’ and external aggression, politician Mikalai Statkevich announced.

“We would like to recall what fate befall invaders who dare to break into our territory and remember the traditions of the Belarusian partisan resistance,” the BNC website says.

The organizers are set to to adopt a resolution against the Zapad-2017 military exercise.

After the rally, the participants will hold the ceremony of laying flowers in Victory Square. Then they will take the Oath of Liberty written by poet and politician Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu.

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

TWITTER