‘We are doing a common thing’: Belarus’s Lukashenka pays visit to a training ground stationing Russian military formation

Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the winner of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election according to the national election commission, has visited a training range in the country’s Brest region which houses a Russian military division, Lukashenka’s press office reports.

A Russian officer at the meeting with Lukashenka reported that the Russian and Belarusian units are now completely in sync in terms of combat capabilities. According to him, motorised rifle and tank units as well as special troops, including the air-defence forces, conducted joint drills.

“We are doing a common thing,” Lukashenka said.

He said that the experience that the military units obtained while synching operations of units and divisions is very important for Belarus.

“I will be very carefully listening to and using it while preparing our armed forces of Belarus and Russia to defend our joint Fatherland. The most important thing <…> is to train both Belarusians and Russians,” he added.

In mid-December, Vladimir Putin and Alyaksandr Lukashenka held a meeting to discuss a “joint defence space”.

Putin lauded the meeting as “very productive”. According to the Russian president, Russia and Belarus agreed to continue holding joint drills, building new military hardware, and finalising the programme aiming to create a joint gas market.