Posted: 23.02.2022 09:03:00

‘The West, together with Ukraine, must admit that they screwed up’

‘Battles’ in the skies over Osipovichi, promising weapons for Belarus, direct answers to critical questions from foreign journalists. How the President spent two and a half hours under heavy rain at the Allied Resolve 2022 exercises.

The Commander-in-Chief was greatly expected at the Allied Resolve 2022 joint operational exercises of the armed forces of Belarus and Russia. It was assumed that he would not be able not to inspect these important manoeuvres for the region. But until recently, it was unknown where and when he would appear. So, Thursday, February 17th. Osipovichsky training ground. Air battles, missile strikes, the skills of Russian paratroopers — all this was seen yesterday by the Head of State. And in a conversation with journalists, Aleksandr Lukashenko harshly responded to those who artificially whip up tension around the current exercises that are taking place on our territory,
“We should not be reproached. We don’t have our armed forces in Canada and Mexico, so calm down. You must admit if you have a sense of conscience, that you made a blunder in this period in front of the entire world community: you accused Russia and Belarus that we would invade Ukraine. We didn’t. So your intelligence and the billions of dollars you spend on it are worthless. At least admit this.”

Bombs away, company!

You don’t get very warm at the training grounds even on a fine day. However, on that day, the weather presented an extremely unpleasant surprise, and in fact, made the task for the military much more difficult. A strong chilly wind was blowing, the rain now and then became a downpour, and in the end, it completely sprinkled hail. However, this is not a reason to cancel the manoeuvres. War does not mean comfort for both sides.
The alleged enemy was defeated in half an hour. Here is the strategy:
  •  In line with the plan of the drill event, a tactical assault force of a mock enemy landed in the area of the positions of the Union State rocket and missile units in order to destroy them.
  • To prevent the actions of a mock enemy and strengthen the protection of positions, units of the Russian Airborne Forces moved forward, occupying a defensive line in the probable direction of the enemy’s advance.
  •  Pilots of Su-35S fourth-generation super-manoeuvrable multirole fighters conducted air battles with mock enemy aircraft, gaining air supremacy and providing bombing-missile air attacks by Yak-130 and Su-25 aircraft, as well as Mi-24 attack helicopters against mock enemy airborne troops.
  •  The Smerch and Uragan multiple rocket launcher systems delivered a massive blow to the columns of the ‘enemy’ equipment.
  •  The mock enemy’s attempt to support the landing operations with army aviation was thwarted by the Verba portable anti-aircraft missile systems, which hit targets imitating helicopters at a distance of more than 3,000 metres.
  •  With the support of rocket artillery, D-30 howitzers, Nona self-propelled artillery mounts, the airborne units completed the defeat of the tactical assault of a mock enemy.
“The drills are proceeding in line with the plan. The troops have practiced defensive operations,” said the Head of the Main Department of Combat Training of the Armed Forces of Belarus Andrei Nekrashevich. 
“As the person in charge of this drill event, I would like to praise the high level of professionalism and interaction between the Belarusian and Russian military personnel, which enabled them to efficiently and quickly fulfil the tasks set for the exercise.”

‘We actually have a single army’

In a conversation with journalists (a lot of them were accredited for the exercises — reporters came from 25 countries, including Russia, the USA, Germany, Japan, Estonia, Saudi Arabia), the Head of State spoke about geopolitics, as well as many other things. Communication with the Belarusian leader turned out to be as frank, open, and as democratic as possible. Foreign colleagues pushed and shouted over each other. The American journalist, in particular, naively tried to convince our President that from the side of Belarus, where the Russian military personnel is located, they say, there is a threat to Ukraine. A counter-question followed from 
Aleksandr Lukashenko, “Do you still believe that we will attack Ukraine from here? Are you still entertaining this crazy idea?”
It was noted that there is an official point of view of the U.S. administration on the exercise. It is well known as it is communicated by Western media. Russia and Belarus have their own position from which they proceed, the Head of State noted,
“We have a Belarusian-Russian agreement, in fact, a single group has been formed: a single army. This is our official position. And, please, consider this position as we consider your position.”
Before accusing us of something, the Americans would do well to honestly answer a couple of simple questions, the first one being about what they are doing here, thousands of kilometres away from home?
“There are your specialists in Ukraine, your troops are in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. What are you doing here? Therefore, we should not be reproached. We don’t have our armed forces in Canada and Mexico, so calm down,” urged opponents Aleksandr Lukashenko.
And then he drew attention to another important point regarding the US claims against Russia and Belarus,
“You must admit if you have a sense of conscience, that you made a blunder… You accused Russia and Belarus that we would invade Ukraine. We didn’t. So your intelligence and the billions of Dollars you spend on it are worthless. At least admit this… The West, together with the leadership of Ukraine, must admit that they screwed up.”

‘We can place S-400 somewhere  east of Minsk or near Minsk’

The absence of the need for military bases does not mean that we will not have promising weapons at all. The Head of State noted that Belarus needs several types of promising military hardware, “We will buy this hardware and receive it as a gift from our older brothers. We have a S-400 is in our training centre and — if needed — a couple more systems will be deployed. We do not need more. This weapon sees at a distance of 600km. Where will we place it? It is enough for us to have S-300, but we are now talking about the purchase of several such systems. We can place them somewhere east of Minsk or near Minsk, seeing what is happening in Kyiv, beyond Warsaw, and so on.”


By the way, Aleksandr Lukashenko also said that after the Allied Resolve 2022 joint exercises part of the Russian ammunition may remain in Belarus, “We’ve agreed — I am telling you this openly, though I should have avoided answering this question — that we will leave some weapons there if we need them in order to avoid their transporting from one place to another.”
Answering to the question ‘Is Belarus ready to place Russian nuclear weapons on its territory?’ Aleksandr Lukashenko
replied that it would be placed in Belarus only in case of threats from the West,
“If necessary — if our opponents and rivals take such stupid steps — we will deploy not only nuclear but even more advanced nuclear weapons in order to protect our territory. If these threats are not posed, then we absolutely do not need nuclear weapons here.”
The Head of State added, that Belarusians could study in Kaliningrad or Murmansk and then serve in joint Belarusian-Russian navy troops.

When asked by an Estonian journalist whether he is ready to step down the presidency in 2025, Aleksandr Lukashenko said,
“If the collective West — primarily the Americans — stop placing the main focus on Belarus and do not heat the situation here as it was in 2020, then everything will be legal and nice and will happen sooner than you or they want. If you continue to attack us, as it was in 2020, then I will be an eternal President.”
To such a frank and principled answer of the Belarusian leader, the Estonian journalist exclaimed ‘Super!’ raising his thumb up.

By Dmitry Umpirovich,  Yevgeny Kononovich
Photos by Yegor Yermalitsky