Russian military arrives in Belarus again
Another echelon of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation has arrived in Belarus to participate in Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) exercises.
Source: Belaruski Hajun, an independent Belarusian military monitoring media outlet; Military Media Center
Details: Belaruski Hajun reports that on 29 August, at about 07:30, the next train with the military of the Russian Armed Forces arrived in Brest.
They came to Belarus to participate in joint exercises with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation's (CSTO) Rapid Response Forces Interaction-2023, which will be held in Belarus on 1-6 September.
Belaruski Hajun notes that several exercises will be held in Belarus at the same time:
- Search-2023 with intelligence forces;
- Echelon-2023 with the material and technical support forces of the troops;
- Barrier-2023 with the joint Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence troops and medical support unit;
- Cliff-2023 (Skala) with divisions of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Belarusian observers report this is the second echelon of the Russian Armed Forces that arrived in Brest to participate in the CSTO exercises. The first one arrived on the evening of 18 August.
Serhii Naiev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that the Russian ground component had been entirely withdrawn from Belarus, but in September, a number of CSTO exercises (Echelon, Search and Interaction) are planned on the territory of Belarus, which "can be used as legitimising the military presence build-up".
Belaruski Hajun denied this: "There has been a significant reduction in the number of Russian troops in Belarus, but there is no question of a full withdrawal".
According to Belarusian observers, since the beginning of July, the field camps of the Russian Armed Forces have been liquidated at the Obuz-Lesnovsky, Lepelsky and Osipovitsky training grounds, but the Russian military continues to be stationed at the Mozyr (Bokov) and Zyabrivka airfields, at the Baranovichi radio technical hub and at the 43rd Vileika communications hub.
At the moment, Belaruski Hajun estimates the number of Russian Armed Forces troops in the above locations alone at approximately 2,000 people.
On 1-6 September, Belarus will host the CSTO exercise Combat Brotherhood-2023. More than 2,500 military personnel will take part in the exercise, of which approximately 300 will be from Russia.
Quote from Naiev: "Taking into account that Russia has not achieved its strategic goals, the search for new reasons for resuming active actions on the northern front is not excluded in the future. Therefore, the organisation of provocations and sabotage on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border is not excluded.
At the same time, no signs of the formation of strike groups in the Pivnich (North) operational-strategic group zone have been exposed. The existing set of cover troops of the Armed Forces of Belarus and the cover group of the state border from the Zapad (West) group are mainly ready to conduct deterrent and defensive actions on its territory.
However, the risk of using sabotage and reconnaissance forces from the territory of Belarus is not excluded, so we are already taking measures to improve our counter-sabotage and defence capabilities."
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