Belarus is conducting exercises near the border with Poland and Lithuania

The Belarusian Ministry of Defence announced the exercises, which will take place from 15 to 18 September. Practical actions of the troops will be conducted at the Gozhsky, Brest, and Ruzhansky training grounds, as well as in the areas of the Brest and Grodno regions. These regions are located near Belarus’s borders with Poland and Lithuania.

The announcement states that large-scale movements of troops and equipment are not planned. The manoeuvres “will be aimed at working out the issues of covering sections of the state border, combating unmanned aerial vehicles of various types, ranging from jet aircraft to small FPV drones and quadcopters”, according to the ministry’s statement.

Belarus has been testing the combat readiness of its security structures for some time now. On 11 September, President Alexander Lukashenko visited the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground near Baranovichi, declaring that his objective is to verify the state’s entire security sector.

Any military manoeuvres in Belarus should be monitored by its Western neighbours. Minsk remains in close cooperation with, and dependent on, Moscow. This was particularly evident at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, when Belarus made its territory and military infrastructure available for conducting attacks. The Russian side continues to use relay stations operating in Belarus to control drones to this day. These allow for the execution of strikes in Western Ukraine.