Belarus announces inspection of troops (Photo: Ministry of Defense of Belarus)
Alexander Lukashenko ordered a combat readiness inspection of the country’s armed forces on Wednesday, Belarusian Security Council Secretary Alexander Volfovich said, according to the Defense Ministry on Aug. 26.
According to Volfovich, Lukashenko allegedly made the decision because of CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow.
He also claimed that as part of the readiness inspection, one brigade would leave its permanent base and carry out a series of tasks.
“We will not talk about them for now. Everything depends on the decisions made by the leadership of the Armed Forces, the General Staff and military units,” Volfovich said.
He added that the inspection would focus particularly on methods of striking a potential adversary. The Security Council secretary said the drills would take into account lessons from Russia’s war against Ukraine and the U.S. war against Iran.
Against this backdrop, he urged people not to panic over the inspection, saying that “nothing unusual is happening.”
On Aug. 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing satellite imagery, reported that railway infrastructure was being built in Belarus’ Gomel region near the Ukrainian border to allow large quantities of heavy wheeled and tracked equipment to be quickly unloaded directly from military trains.
On July 21, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko ordered that people who, in his words, “do not know how to work” or ignore orders be sent to the military and the country’s southern border.
At the same time, Lukashenko insisted that this “does not mean there is any intention to attack anyone.”
On Aug. 25, it was reported that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had secretly arrived in Moscow for meetings in the Russian capital.
Reuters, citing Flightradar24, reported that a U.S. Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft with tail number 07-7181 landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport that day after arriving from Riga at about 10 a.m. Kyiv time. The aircraft had arrived in Riga on Aug. 23 from Joint Base Andrews near Washington. It departed Moscow several hours later.
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