Alexander Lukashenko has stated that combat readiness checks must cover the entire Belarusian Armed Forces and include the testing of mobilisation mechanisms. However, this does not constitute an announcement of a general or partial mobilisation: the aim is to ensure the readiness to rapidly deploy units and bring their strength up to wartime levels.
Briefly about the main points
- The inspections are to be extended to cover the entire Belarusian Armed Forces.
- The exercises involve practising the deployment and reinforcement of units.
- An artillery brigade is currently being inspected; other units were inspected earlier.
- No decision on a general or partial mobilisation has been announced.
- Ukraine is monitoring the situation in the north.
The training should simulate wartime conditions
On the new phase of inspections Lukashenko he said on 11 September during a visit to the Obuz-Lisnovsky combined-arms training ground in the Brest Region. Responding to a question about further inspections of the security forces, he said: «The army needs a shake-up; the time has come.».
According to him, the military must operate in conditions as close as possible to combat conditions. He also stated that the exercises take into account the experience of modern warfare and practise the actual deployment of units.
At the training ground, Lukashenko was briefed on the troop command and control system and new communications equipment. The Belarusian authorities explain the intensification of military training by arguing that they are preparing for war in order to prevent it.
Inspections have already covered artillery, tank and motorised infantry units
On Lukashenko’s instructions, one of the artillery brigades is currently being inspected. Similar measures have previously been carried out in tank and motorised infantry units; the Internal Troops of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs are also undergoing inspection.
At the end of August, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence reported that the personnel of an artillery brigade under central command were to bring their equipment and weapons to a state of readiness and carry out combat training exercises. Ukrainian media, citing the ministry, reported that there were plans to partially bring the brigade up to wartime strength and move it from its permanent base.
The reference to mobilisation relates to a readiness check
Lukashenko’s remark about checks «right up to mobilisation» describes the possible scope of training exercises, not a decision to call up reservists. It refers to the ability to rapidly deploy units, reinforce them with personnel and switch to a wartime structure.
Some units are already being deployed in accordance with wartime standards. The scale of the inspection announced by Lukashenko goes beyond exercises involving individual units, as he has announced that it will cover the country’s entire Armed Forces.
Ukraine is monitoring Belarus’s activities in the north
The security context for Ukraine stems from the fact that, in February 2022, Russia used Belarusian territory as one of bridgeheads for a full-scale invasion. Minsk also agreed to the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
At the end of June 2026, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated that the Ukrainian command saw no signs that Belarus was prepared to enter the war directly or to once again allow its territory to be used for a new large-scale Russian offensive. Ukraine continues to monitor the situation in the north.
