A fighter from the Russian mercenary group Wagner and a Belarusian service member take part in joint training at the Brest military range, on the outskirts of Brest, Belarus, in this still image released on July 20, 2023. Belarus Ministry of Defense/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
The Belarusian Emergency Situations Ministry is completing military and weapons training of its staff to be ready to assist the Defense and Interior Ministries in the event of an armed conflict, the head of the Emergency Ministry said on Monday.
Emergency Minister Vadim Sinyavsky told Belarus 1 state television that the employees will be ready to help the ministries “in the event of an armed conflict or some kind of unrest in which a significant number of personnel must be involved.”
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier this year that he wants “every man, and not just one man,” to be able to at least handle weapons to respond to an act of aggression.
While not sending his own troops into Ukraine, Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, Belarus and Russia have held multiple joint military training exercises, and in June Lukashenko allowed his country to be used as a base for Moscow’s nuclear weapons, a move widely condemned by the West.
Lukashenko has also met frequently with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Belarusian president’s latest two-day trip to Moscow ended on Monday, where the two leaders discussed a “strategic partnership.”
Russia and Belarus are linked in an association called the “state of the union” in which Moscow is by far the dominant player.
The perception that Lukashenko, a pariah in the West, depends on Putin for his survival had stoked fears in Kiev that Putin would pressure him to join a new ground offensive and open a new front in Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine.
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