Belarus holds snap inspection of troop combat readiness

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The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced, on Tuesday, that a quick assessment of its military forces' combat preparedness has started by order of President Alexander Lukashenko.

"At the instruction of the Belarusian President, the Commander-in-Chief of the Belarusian armed forces, a snap inspection of combat readiness has begun led by the state secretariat of the Security Council," the ministry said.

Inspection measures will cover a variety of topics, as per the ministry. The forces will also have to advance into designated regions, install engineering equipment, arrange their defense, and construct crossings over the Neman and Berezina rivers.

The defense ministry also detailed that civilian mobility will be temporarily prohibited on some roads and in some places as part of the inspection.

This is happening shortly after Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin stated that Minsk cannot turn a blind eye to the increasing militarization of its Western neighbors, as there is concrete evidence that NATO countries are preparing their infrastructure and their troops for war.

NATO has ramped up its presence by planting battle groups in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

In July, the Belarusian President said that Minsk will continue to support Russia in its fight against Nazism. 

It is worth noting that Russia and Belarus are members of the Union State, a supranational organization formed in the 1990s with the objective of integrating both nations' political, economic, and defense policies. Its military doctrine declares that any aggression against either member is aggression against both, which would call for "appropriate measures" to be taken "using all the forces and means" at the countries' disposal to neutralize the threat.

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