Defence Minister: Belarus preparing troops primarily to protect itself

The country is training troops primarily for its own defence – as stated by Belarus’ Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin during a closing ceremony of the command and staff exercises of the Armed Forces, the Defence Ministry’s official Telegram channel reports

Photo by Belarus’ Defence Ministry

As noted by Mr. Khrenin, the drills crown the training of management bodies and troops. “Their main purpose is not to demonstrate something to someone, but primarily to train our command bodies and our troops what is necessary in war,” he said.

The Defence Minister stressed that enhanced requirements had been imposed on the management system and the tasks through which these principles are being achieved. “We now need to rethink and analyse all this very well. We also had research goals during the drills: to find out whether we had chosen the right vector for construction and development of the Armed Forces," he added.

As explained by Mr. Khrenin, the performance of tasks will be assessed later, but it is already possible to talk about a positive result. This primarily refers to the management system. The Defence Minister is convinced that new forms and ways of application need to be found when preparing management bodies – taking into account new high capabilities: both reconnaissance and fire.

“We will continue to move forward. Our exercises have once again demonstrated openness, since we invited military attaches from 14 countries – including the states that, unfortunately, pursue an unfriendly policy towards Belarus. We have shown that we are preparing the Armed Forces to protect, first of all, our country. The howl by some unfriendly mass media is just provocations – and nothing more. These are links in the same chain of information warfare that is going against our country. I want to state with full responsibility that our Armed Forces have carried out, are carrying out and will carry out the tasks set for us by the Head of State and our people," Belarus’ Defence Minister concluded.