General Salyukov, Commander of Russian Ground Forces, arrives in Belarus

The Ministry of Defence of Belarus reported that the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, General Oleg Salyukov, arrived in the country. Salyukov heads the commission of the Russian Defence Ministry, which was sent to the republic to inspect Russian units of the joint group of troops.

"Members of the commission inspected the quality of combat coordination exercises and gave an assessment of their readiness to fulfill intended tasks to ensure the military security of the Union State,” the ministry said.

On January 11, Oleg Salyukov was appointed a deputy commander of the united group of troops in Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff General of the Army, as the head of the group. General of the Army Sergei Surovikin, former commander of the joint forces, became another deputy to Gerasimov. Colonel-General Alexei Kim, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, was appointed third deputy commander.

President Alexander Lukashenko announced the deployment of the joint group of troops with Russia in Belarus on October 10, 2022.

"If the level of threat reaches that of today, we will resort to the Union State grouping. The basis (I have always talked about this) of this grouping is the army, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus,” the President of Belarus said then.

Both Russian and Belarusian officials assured that the move to deploy the joint forces was solely defensive in nature.

On October 16, Assistant to the Head of the Belarusian Defence Ministry Valery Revenko said that the number of the Russian military in the regional grouping of troops in Belarus would be just under 9,000 people.