Belarus’ self-proclaimed president Alexander Lukashenko has abruptly ordered a review of the country’s entire armed forces, reports the Belarusian state agency Belta.
According to Belta, this is an unexpected and large-scale inspection Lukashenko is said to be personally involved.
During these drills in Belarus, authorities will test the protection of military units, including against various types of UAVs, taking into account lessons from the “SVO” (as Minsk, following Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, calls Russia’s war against Ukraine). But Lukashenko’s top priority is to inspect storage sites for armored vehicles and other military equipment.
In September 2025, Russia and Belarus held joint military exercises, “Zapad,” that lasted 10 days. Several thousand Russian troops were transferred to Belarusian territory for the drills. Lukashenko claimed the goal was to test the defense readiness of Minsk and Moscow.
As part of “Zapad,” Belarus hosted training with Russia’s new ground-based, medium-range missile system “Oreshnik,” which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Minsk says one “Oreshnik” system allegedly entered combat duty in Belarus in December 2025. The Russian occupation army has already used this system’s missiles twice to strike civilian cities in Ukraine: Dnipro in November 2024 and Lviv in January 2026.
