Belarus began an unannounced, large-scale military exercise on Wednesday to test the combat readiness of its army, reports the Reuters agency, citing a statement from the Belarusian defense ministry. The ministry assured the press that the maneuvers do not pose a threat to neighboring countries.
"The planned (combat-readiness) test involves the displacement of a significant number of military vehicles, which may slow down traffic on public roads," - says the press release.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense stressed that the exercises "do not pose a threat to neighboring countries or to the European community in general," writes Reuters.
Russia has been using the territory of Belarus to attack Ukraine from the beginning of the conflict. Before the Russian invasion of Belarus, joint Russian-Belarusian military maneuvers took place.
The Biełaruskij Hajun project, which collects and publishes information on the movements and activities of troops in Belarus, said on Twitter that the movement of Belarusian military equipment towards the Lithuanian and Ukrainian border was noticed on Wednesday morning.
According to this information, at 6 am local time, a column of around 30 pieces of military equipment headed from Minsk towards the Lithuanian border along the route M7. The video shows the BTR-82A and BTR-80K armored personnel carriers.
Around 8:30 a squadron of the S-300PS missile system headed from Brest towards the Ukrainian border along the route R-17. The column consisted of about 25-30 pieces of military equipment.
