Belarusian air defense personnel have conducted an exercise with aircraft flying at various altitudes and speeds near the Ukrainian border.
Belarusian air defense personnel have conducted an exercise involving aircraft flying at various altitudes and speeds near the Ukrainian border.
The drill involved a unit of the 56th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, based in the Luninets district of Belarus’ southwestern Brest region.
Crews practiced detecting, tracking, and conducting simulated engagements against the aircraft used as training targets.
The ministry said the targets were identified in time but did not disclose which aircraft participated or which air defense systems were deployed.
Pressure on Minsk
The exercise comes amid renewed scrutiny of Belarus’ role in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office asked the country’s prosecutor general to assess whether there were grounds to open criminal proceedings against his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.
Belarus did not deploy its forces during Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, but Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to use the country’s territory to enter northern Ukraine and advance toward Kyiv.
In June, reports indicated that Moscow was pressing Minsk to become more directly involved in the conflict.
One scenario reportedly under consideration involved using Belarusian territory to create a new front, potentially forcing Ukraine to divert forces from the east.
Kyiv also alleged in May that command infrastructure in Belarus was supporting Russian Shahed-type drone operations.
Ukrainian specialists suspected that a control station was operating from Belarusian territory because some of the drones were detected about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Russia, too far away, they argued, to be controlled directly from there.
