Reservists mobilised across country

Belarus actively calls up reservists for training.

Some experts explain the activity of the Belarusian military with the escalation of the civil war in Ukraine. A source of gazeta.ru in the General Staff confirms this information. However, official reports from the Ministry of Defence of Belarus prefer to say about a threat from NATO.

People in the regions are alarmed by the mobilisation of reservists. Reserve soldiers are not called up in Minsk yet. 140 reservists are reported to have been called up in Vaukavysk. It may mean that around 15,000 can be mobilsed across the county. The total number of the Belarusian armed forces is around 50,000 people.

Enlistment offices warn that reservists can be called up on the phone within the nearest two months.

A colleague of the online newspaper's correspondent from Mozyr says: “I was on a business trip for two days. My colleagues said representatives of the enlistment office had called to work five times. They want me to appear for training and say they mobilise reservists across the country. I don't want to be called up. Perhaps, I will have to leave for Vilnius for a while.”

“I didn't receive a conscription notice. They just made a phone call. They have this right under law. After the registration, we were sent from Vaukavysk to the regional conscription centre in Hrodna. But they told us that training would take place at a base near Brest,” another reservist says.

Charter97.org already published a letter from a reader: “I live in Vaukavysk. A friend of mine has been called up for training this morning,” he said. “He received a conscription notice at work yesterday. He was said that he should go to the enlistment office for a lecture. He came to the enlistment office. He and other guys (four buses) were taken to a military base to have training for up to 35 days. He is at the base now. I'd like to add that my friend has a child under three years old. According to him, some of the reservists have small children and one has a disabled child.”

Readers from Brest report: “Many reservists in Brest receive draft notices obliging them to appear for special training. Men receive draft notices at work or at home. They must visit the conscription centre at Brest State University. Besides, all guys who have any exemptions are also called up. They pay special attention to those studying abroad.”

All reservists and their families, to whom journalists talked, are sure that the urgent training is explained with the latest events in Ukraine.

The Belarusian military began large-scale exercises on January 23. They are carried out at six training ranges – in Brest, Obuz-Lesnovski, Lepel, Hozha, Asipovichy and Barysau.

Major General Aleh Belakoneu, first deputy minister of defence of Belarus and the chief of the General Staff, told journalists that redeployment of air forces and air defence troops and strenghtened border control would be trained. The exercises will also include tactical and firing drills.

“The operations and training stage is under way now. Combat readiness exercises are carried out at this stage,” Aleh Belakoneu said. “It is planned to involve special task units that will have their own special drills.”

The press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Defence explains the exercises with the increased activity of NATO, including the unusually high activity in the Baltic States in late 2014. “The neighbouring countries demonstrate they want the increased foreign military presence in their territories. Alongside with the increasing the presence of the NATO air fores in the Baltic States, the Alliance concentrates additional military contingents armed with heavy weapons along the Belarusian borders,” the press service of the ministry of defence says. “Whatever the grounds for such decisions of our foreign parters are, Belarus cannot ignore the changes in the military and political situation in the region that pose additional risks, challenges and threats to military security.”

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the mobilisation of reservists.

Many in Belarus notice that the training and mobilisation of reservists are held ahead of February 1, when the amended law “On martial law” takes force. According to the law, the presence of people in military uniform without insignia (as it was in, for example, Crimea) will be declared a foreign aggression.

According to the amended law, a military threat is “the emerging of zones of military conflicts aimed against the independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and constitutional order of Belarus”. An attack on any of the members the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) – Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – will be considered an attack on Belarus. It remains unclear, however, what Belarus will do if one CSTO member attacks another.

“The amendments to the law 'On Defence' took force at the beginning of the year. The peculiarity of the law is that it contains the new notion for Belarus – territorial defence,” a source in the General Staff of Belarus said. “These are not regular forces. They will be trained under another programme. Their main function is not to allow a 'hybrid war' in different regions of the country. That's why the large-scale training was organised. The events in Ukraine make the authorities to significantly speed up the preparation of the territorial defence units.”