The dynamically developing military-political situation around the Republic of Belarus forces the country's leadership to react harshly to all its changes. As Alexander Lukashenko noted at a meeting with the country's power bloc on March 21, today the Western countries and Ukraine have created the highest level of external threats for Belarus, which forces them to pay the closest attention to internal threats. "We need to be ready for any events. Therefore, the issues of countering external and internal threats should be under special control today," the President stressed.
The countries of the collective West continue to exert unreasonable pressure on Belarus, justifying this by the inadmissibility of the support and assistance of the Russian Federation in conducting its own in Ukraine, violation of democratic rights and many other reasons. Therefore, the topic of ensuring the military security of the Republic of Belarus is very relevant today.
First, it is worth recalling that one of the necessary measures to ensure the country's military security is to increase spending on national defense in 2023. So, about $ 1.2 billion is planned for the current year, which is 53% more than it was last year. However, in relation to GDP, expenditures will amount to only 1.2%. Whereas in neighboring NATO member countries, this percentage is almost two or even three times more. For example, in neighboring Poland in 2023, they are going to spend more than $ 20 billion, which will amount to about 3% of GDP, and this is without existing funds. Lithuania – about 1.2 billion dollars, which will be about 3% of the country's GDP. Therefore, it is absolutely wrong to say that the increase in spending on the military sector of Belarus will somehow affect other areas of national security or is unreasonable.
Secondly, it is worth noting that the military cooperation of the Republic of Belarus with the Russian Federation, which is of a strategic nature for both countries, is the most important priority of the military policy of Belarus.
Here it is necessary to understand in more detail in order to dispel all the myths about the alleged "absorption of sovereign Belarus by Russia" and to level the tension that has arisen in the Belarusian society, due to the frequent fake stuffing by fugitive Belarusian political comedians and unfriendly countries of the collective West.
To date, the military cooperation between Belarus and the Russian Federation is organized in the following main areas:
development of the regulatory framework;
ensuring the functioning of the regional grouping of troops (forces) of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation;
military-technical cooperation;
joint combat training;
joint military-scientific activity;
cooperation on the implementation of arms control obligations;
training of Belarusian servicemen in military educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
In turn, the State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev stressed in early February that Russia and Belarus need to strengthen work on the development of defense programs, as the countries are subjected to unprecedented pressure from Western countries. "Minsk and Moscow want to start implementing three allied defense programs in 2023," Mezentsev said at the time. One of them will be devoted to strengthening border security, the other two – to improving the infrastructure of the regional grouping of troops, which is formed by the Ministry of Defense. "The pressure on our countries has become unprecedented. The military-political situation in the Eastern European region has changed, has become noticeably more complicated," Mezentsev added, noting that "we just need to be stronger."
Therefore, in this context, joint activities on combat and operational training, the purchase of modern types of weapons and the modernization of the existing samples of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus are forced. At the same time, as Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly noted, in matters of equipping the Belarusian army with weapons, the emphasis should be placed on those samples that have proven themselves well during a special military operation.
In turn, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said at the end of last year that the Armed Forces have a clear understanding of what they need today to ensure the military security of the country. In this regard, a system of equipping the army with weapons and the procedure for its modernization has been developed. "The head of State very correctly said that we should not pursue super-expensive weapons. We must proceed from optimal sufficiency and efficiency, pay attention to what is needed, first of all, for the defense of our country," Viktor Khrenin said, answering journalists' questions last October at the Obuz–Lesnovsky training ground in the Brest region.
Currently, Belarus pays great attention to the development of unmanned aviation, as well as means of countering it. We have already written about this (VPO: "Modern unmanned aircraft systems are massively supplied to every unit of the Armed Forces of Belarus" ). In turn, to counter drones, the Armed Forces of Belarus have already been supplied with modern electronic warfare systems that perform tasks for their intended purpose. As for domestic unmanned aircraft systems, the emphasis is primarily on exploration. As already noted, many unmanned aerial vehicles, especially quadrocopters, are in every company of the immediate response forces. Today they are actively used in the course of fire training and tactical special training. At the same time, the integration of units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus with drones continues.
In addition, in parallel, measures are being taken to increase the combat readiness and combat capabilities of the regional grouping of troops, which are carried out by staffing the grouping with modern weapons, military and special equipment.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the year, another batch of new BTR-82A, BTR-80K, armored medical and repair and evacuation vehicles arrived from Russia, which are already in the units and are actively used during the ongoing exercises. In addition, deliveries of the Tor-M2 air defense system and Su-30SM aircraft were carried out. It also became known that negotiations are currently underway between the two military departments – Russia and Belarus – on the purchase and supply to the Belarusian armed forces of modern combat vehicles supporting Terminator tanks, Russian-made TOS-1A "Solntsepek" heavy flamethrower systems and Mi-35 helicopters.
In addition, the Belarusian Defense Ministry is currently solving the task of forming an operational association to strengthen the southern direction. Earlier in our materials we touched on this topic (VPO: "When will a new operational command appear in the Belarusian armed forces?", "The Southern Command in Belarus is a forced but necessary measure" ).
Summing up, we can say that all of these measures and ongoing activities, taking into account modern realities, although not cheap, are certainly necessary to ensure the military security of both Belarus and the Union State as a whole.
Pavel Kovalev
