A year ago, Russia and Belarus announced their intention to set up joint combat training centres "to increase the level of coherence and combat proficiency” of soldiers of both armies.
Officially, such training centres will be arranged for the following purposes:
Military expert Vasily Dandykin told the Free Press that such a step comes as "a response to the activation of NATO troops at the borders of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. The two countries are on their way to create a full-fledged "joint allied army.”
Belarus has an extensive system of military training facilities that has been preserved since the times of the USSR. In turn, Russia may share its advanced defence technology with Belarus.
The Belarusian platform is important to defend the Kaliningrad enclave and keep Poland and the Baltic region under control as NATO has been particularly active there lately.
However, Russian politician Viktor Alksnis noted that before the transfer of Russian nuclear weapons to the Republic of Belarus that "Lukashenko used to respond vaguely to proposals to deploy Russian military facilities in the Republic of Belarus.”
In addition, Belarus has not recognised Crimea, the DPR, the LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as parts of Russia, although President Lukashenko stated that he would be ready to do it "at any moment, if need be.”
Russia is interested in moving its military facilities as close to western borders of the former USSR as possible against the backdrop of NATO's increased activities in the region.
During the 60 Minutes television program, Andrei Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Defence Committee, spoke of Russia's alleged plan to conduct a "strategic aerospace operation” to suppress air defence systems, achieve air superiority, isolate combat zones and strike vital facilities to cause Ukraine's economic activities to collapse completely.
Currently, Russia mostly uses drones to strike critical facilities in Ukraine. The Ukrainian industry has increased the production of rockets — there are thousands of them, the official said.
He also said that strategic attacks on Ukraine's critical targets are spelled out in guidance documents, and Russian military leaders are well aware of what to do in this direction.
First targets in the operation have been determined as well, but the Russian command is not going to make any announcements about the operation.