Volfovich summed up results of Zapad-2025 exercise and explained its ‘bonus’ result
Answering journalists' questions about the results of his today’s report to the Head of State, Aleksandr Volfovich, State Secretary of the Security Council, summed up the results of the Zapad-2025 exercise and explained what ‘bonus’ effect it had produced, BelTA reports
As noted by Mr. Volfovich, all the tasks set for the drills had been worked out, and the goals had been achieved. Among them were, in particular, issues related to the management, the creation of groups of troops to protect the Union State, the control over the repelling of enemy air attacks, the issues of defence and restoration of positions along the state border of the Union State.
In addition, the Belarusian military studied the experience of their Russian colleagues gained during the special military operation. "Time dictates us the need to introduce new methods and forms of warfare, to place control points in a different way, to manage in a slightly different way under the influence of a powerful electronic environment. We needed that experience and we studied it,” the State Secretary said, adding that the main point that the exercise demonstrated was a very high level of training of the military personnel of Belarus and Russia.
However, there was also a somewhat unexpected effect from the exercise. “That was a debunking of the fakes about the exercise that had been formed in the West: they state that we are creating groups necessarily to attack Europe, to seize some western territories and borders (which we do not need a priori, and the President has voiced this more than once),” Mr. Volfovich said. “We have enough of our land, which we love, appreciate and will, of course, protect by all possible means and methods. We actually know how to do it."
The State Secretary emphasised that the exercise had been prescheduled as an event of operational combat training, noting that all the points worked out during the drills had been exclusively defensive in nature – ‘in contrast to what the collective West accused us of: that we are creating a group for aggression and posing a threat to our Western neighbours’. “Absolutely not," Mr. Volfovich said.
According to the State Secretary, as soon as the Zapad-2025 exercise was announced, ‘we saw the hysteria launched in the West’: i.e. they immediately prepared and conducted an additional series of the Iron Defender 2025 drills, which included about 10-13 exercises of various scales on the territory of Poland, the Baltic States and other European countries. Interestingly, the Zapad-2025 military personnel numbered about 7 thousand, and 34-36 thousand military personnel and a corresponding amount of equipment were involved in the Iron Defender 2025 exercises. In addition, it was decided to hold the Quadriga-2025 exercises with more than 8 thousand military personnel.
"The group created on the territory of Western countries in opposition to our group and our planned exercises consisted of over 40 thousand military personnel, which was probably slightly less than the Belarusian Armed Forces’ personnel number. With this in view, who was posing a threat to whom?" Mr. Volfovich asked rhetorically.
According to the State Secretary, the rhetoric of many Western politicians, especially the leaders of Poland, the Baltic States and Germany, cannot but cause concern. They talk about the threat from the East, militarisation, and increased spending on military budgets.
"Americans told them to spend about 5 percent of GDP, and that was taken for granted. They are ready to spend 5 percent of GDP, including 3.5 percent directly on military expenses. Does the rhetoric of the leadership of the collective West mention any issues related to the socio-economic development of these countries, improving the well-being of citizens, and the construction of civilian infrastructure facilities, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and so on? We hear nothing of the kind. There is a sort of continuous militarisation instead,” Mr. Volfovich noted.
The State Secretary gave another example concerning Poland: the Eastern Shield programme. As part of it, a 50km-wide militaristic zone is being created along the border with Belarus. Local residents are being resettled there, their lands and personal possessions are being taken away, and forests are being cut down. Much money is spent not on what citizens really need.
In this regard, Mr. Volfovich mentioned a completely different policy of the President of Belarus. Aleksandr Lukashenko is primarily concerned about the economic issues, the improvement of people's well-being, and socio-economic development. Naturally, in terms of protecting national interests, the military security issues are also always in the President's field of view – and this was observed during today’s report of the State Secretary.
As emphasised by Mr. Volfovich, Belarus traditionally demonstrates openness and pursues a friendly policy, and that was also the case during the preparation and conduct of the Zapad-2025 exercise. A large-scale campaign was organised to inform the population in Belarus and its neighbours in the West about what was going to happen, briefings were held at various levels, and the goals, scope, and number of participants were voiced. Military attaches from various countries and observers from NATO states were invited. However, few of them came, and – according to the State Secretary – that was vivid evidence of who is who in the situation related to the Belarusian-Russian Zapad-2025 exercise.
