BARYSAW: Explosions rang out, artillery shells screeched and jets roared as a few dozen men — including US military officials — watched through binoculars as Belarusian and Russian troops charged across a training ground.
Moscow and its key ally Minsk say the drills, called Zapad, are designed to simulate a possible invasion of their territory.
But it is NATO’s eastern flank that has its tail up about a possible attack — spooked by the movement of thousands of troops just days after Russian drones were downed over Poland and with Warsaw warning “open conflict” is closer than at any point since World War II.
To host Belarus, the concerns are overblown.
“We have heard a lot of things... that we are threatening NATO, that we are going to invade the Baltic states,” said Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, overseeing the drills at the Barysaw base, east of Minsk, in a field uniform.
“Simply put, all kinds of nonsense,” he added.
Poland, Latvia and Lithuania — all of which border Belarus — have nevertheless ramped up security, with border closures and counter-drills.
Granting rare access to its military, Belarus had invited dozens of foreign journalists and TV crews to the choreographed military display on Monday.
Even military attachés from the United States were there, hailed as guests of honor.
“Give the American guests the best places and show them everything that interests them,” the Belarusian defense ministry said in a statement.
As the drills opened, Khrenin was filmed shaking hands with two US army soldiers, telling them how happy he was they had come.
“Thank you,” they replied, in Russian.
Lower numbers
From their perch on the viewing platform, they could watch camouflaged tank-like vehicles power into a river, turn and drive out onto the opposing bank.
A helicopter tracked the mock combat from overhead, flying just above the tops of nearby trees.
In a bunker, young conscripts loaded artillery shells into a launcher, while another tweaked the wiring on a drone before it was fired into the air.
Journalists were not invited to the parts of the drills taking place in the Barents and Baltic seas, or the ground exercises in Belarus’s western Grodna region, on the border with both Poland and Lithuania.
By Belarus’s count, the exercises are conspicuously low-key.
According to Minsk, just 7,000 troops are taking part — with only 1,000 sent by Moscow.
With Moscow’s forces fighting in Ukraine, the exercises are a shadow of the 2021 edition, held just months before Russia launched its offensive.
Some 200,000 troops took part back then.
Khrenin attributed the numbers to Minsk’s willingness to “reduce tensions” with neighbors.
“We have nothing to hide,” he said, adding: “We are only preparing to defend our country.”
Including the US observers, Belarus said 23 other countries sent observers to Barysaw — most of them traditional allies of Russia and Belarus.
