Alyaksandr Lukashenka advised the military to change concentration areas more often after he was shown photographs from a Ukrainian drone.
“Everyone sees us and knows us. They sent me photos from a Ukrainian drone. I looked at them. They photographed the Brest area. They photographed our brigade there and all the positions located in that area. They see and know everything”, Lukashenka said today while summing up the combat readiness inspection with the officer corps.
Lukashenka urged special attention to be paid to troop mobility and to changing concentration areas more often, because he said that would be where the first missiles would strike.
“We need to change concentration areas. The enemy must not know them. Because that is where the first missiles will fly. And perhaps we need to change them more often. And in a threatened period we definitely need to change the concentration area.
And what does it mean to change the concentration area? I remember myself, including when I was a young officer, my company was deployed. There was a concentration area here in winter. It was more or less prepared because we knew it was our area. But the enemy will know it too. A concentration area is something you need to feel out, get used to, equip, decide where to put the tent and the stove in the tent. We knew all of this.
That is why special attention was paid to your mobility. You were thrown into a concentration area. You quickly created a place to live there and were ready to fight. We paid special attention to that”, he said.
He also threatened the military over the poor condition of equipment and weapons. Lukashenka stressed that everything in the army must be operational, from a pistol to the Polonez multiple-launch rocket system.
“I am leading you to the main point. What will we be worth if our assault rifle, machine gun, grenade launcher or pistol are not in order? Maybe someone has a MANPADS. If our personal weapons are not in order, how will you fight? But modern war is not only machine guns, grenade launchers, assault rifles and pistols. It is also your equipment. Your tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, Osa air defence systems and other air defence systems. I am not even talking about the Polonez. This is all your equipment”, Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka warned that servicemen must answer with their heads for the condition of equipment.
“I constantly warned the minister and the state secretary as a military man: ‘Keep in mind, you will answer with your heads for the condition of the equipment.’ I am not talking only about servicemen”, he warned.
Lukashenka also called for particular attention to be paid to the physical training of servicemen and recalled recommendations given by fighters from the Russian private military company Wagner, who worked in Belarus as instructors.
“In modern war, respected officers, everything is important: the training of officers, education at your alma mater and in Russia, the degree to which servicemen master their assigned weapons, and the physical training of personnel.
They warned me. Unfortunately, they are no longer alive. They warned me directly: ‘Alyaksandr Ryhoravich, pay attention to physical training.’ I said: ‘What do you mean, you came to tell me this?’ It was Yevgeny Prigozhin, then this Dmitry Utkin and others. They said: ‘We saw this in war.’ If a soldier and officer are fit and prepared, they will survive. If they cannot run, take cover or dodge a bullet, they will not survive.
Then I asked the military to invite those instructors to train our servicemen. First of all, Mikalai Karpiankou responded to this. He brought these people in. They demonstrated things, they taught, and the servicemen learned. But everyone grumbled and muttered: ‘Why are they showing us this? Do we not know this already?’ That is why special attention was paid to physical training during this inspection”, Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka also said that Belarus is preparing for war and stated that the recent combat readiness inspection had revealed shortcomings in the armed forces.
