Belarus-Russia exercise Allied Resolve 2022 described as purely defensive

“I would like to emphasize that this exercise is absolutely defensive in nature. At the end of the exercise all the troops will leave for their permanent deployment points,” Andrei Nekrashevich said.

The joint exercise will take place not only on Belarusian training grounds; maneuvers will also be held in the Belarusian border area near the places of deployment of a great number of troops in the territory of the neighboring countries. “Some of military groups have as many as 30,000 people. A large number of aviation and heavy equipment. Naturally, we could not but respond to these unfriendly moves for our country, for the Union State,” the head of the main department noted.

The inspection will be held in two phases. The first one (which runs until 9 February) will rehearse deploying troops and defending military facilities. The exercise will assess the readiness and ability of the air defense forces on duty to provide protection for key facilities in Belarus.

The joint exercise Allied Resolve 2022 will be held at the second phase of the inspection, from 10 to 20 February. The exercise will drill reinforcing state border sections in potential areas of illegal penetration of armed groups into Belarus and shutting down channels of the supply of arms, munitions and other means and also searching for, blocking and eliminating outlawed armed militants and enemy subversive and reconnaissance groups. The exercise will also highlight certain issues of post-conflict settlement.