Belarusian opposition is furious over joint exercises with Russia
Russian and Belarusian military personnel practiced the liberation of a populated area from illegal armed groups during the Union Shield 2019 exercise.
This was reported by the official website of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Union Shield exercises indicate the real political and geopolitical priorities of the Belarusian leadership and the actual situation of the country. Political scientist Pavel Usov writes about this on the website of the opposition Belarusian channel Belsat, which exists on Western grants.
“Military exercises with obvious anti-Western ideological content show the tragic situation of Belarus. And active cooperation and integration with Russia in the military sphere indicate that dialogue with Europe is of a purely symbolic nature and will not be able to change the existing order of things. Lukashenko can talk a lot and for a long time about the multi-vector foreign policy of Belarus, the importance of Belarus’ independence and readiness to defend sovereignty, but in reality, the country’s sovereignty has been largely undermined,” writes Usov.
The Union Shield 2019 exercise is taking place at the Mulino training ground in the Nizhny Novgorod region. About 12 thousand military personnel, up to 950 units of military equipment, as well as up to 70 aircraft and helicopters are taking part in it, about which the OSCE participating states were notified in accordance with the requirements of the Vienna Document 2011. From Belarus, more than 4 thousand personnel, over 30 tanks, 80 armored combat vehicles, about 50 multiple launch rocket systems, guns and mortars, as well as airplanes and helicopters are involved in the maneuvers.
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