Lukashenko announced that the Belarusian army is preparing for war and that a targeted mobilisation is underway
Alexander Lukashenko made this statement during a briefing by Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin.
During the meeting, Lukashenko announced that Belarus would continue to prepare its army for possible combat operations, in particular for a ‘ground operation’.
“Furthermore, as I promised, we will selectively mobilise units in order to prepare them for war. God willing, we will manage to avoid it,” said Lukashenko.
According to him, Belarus plans to move away from large-scale, sporadic exercises and switch to a rotational training system. Military units will be called up for training in turn, undergo intensive combat training, and then return to their permanent bases.
Lukashenko also stated that during a large-scale inspection of the Belarusian Armed Forces, shortcomings were identified which were discussed at the Ministry of Defence.
“We didn’t particularly hide the shortcomings that exist in the army. I decided that we shouldn’t hide these shortcomings,” he said.
Separately, Lukashenko raised the issue of personnel in the Belarusian Armed Forces. According to him, the situation in military units depends on the people who lead them.
Lukashenko’s statements came against the backdrop of reports about Belarus’s possible involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy had spoken of “specific activity” in certain sections of the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.
Konstantin Nemichev, commander of the Kraken special forces unit, also reported, citing intelligence data, that Russia is considering the option of a hybrid deployment of its troops from Belarusian territory in conjunction with Belarusian units.
