MINSK, December 1. /TASS/. Belarus and Russia will continue joint air defense combat alerts and air patrols of the Union State’s borders in the new training year that started in the Belarusian armed forces on December 1, the republic’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.
"In the new 2021-2022 training year, efforts will continue to accomplish joint combat alerts of the air defense forces of Belarus and Russia and also air patrols of the Union State’s borders," the Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel.
In the course of training, the basic efforts will focus on ensuring Belarus’s military security, "based on a comprehensive assessment and a forecast of the development of the military-political and strategic situation," the ministry’s press office reported.
In the new training year, the Belarusian Defense Ministry will continue comprehensive snap troop inspections for fulfilling assigned tasks, it stressed.
"Both military proving grounds and separate terrain sections on the country’s territory will be used for combat training," the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
The republic’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday that Su-30SM multirole fighters of Belarus and Russia conducted a new joint aerial patrol over the Belarusian state border to enhance air defense combat alerts.
"Efforts continue for implementing a decision on joint patrols of the airspace along the state border of the Republic of Belarus to enhance air defense combat alerts by a mixed tactical group of Su-30SM multirole fighters of Belarus and Russia," the ministry’s press office said on its Telegram channel and uploaded a video clip.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry earlier reported that a mixed tactical group comprising Su-30SM multirole fighters of Belarus and Russia conducted an air patrol along the state border of Belarus on November 25.
Prior to that, Minsk reported that the republic’s radio-technical and radar reconnaissance systems registered a constant increase in the intensity of flights by NATO spy and combat planes along the state border of Belarus, including in Ukraine’s airspace. The flights by these aircraft had actually doubled lately and the number of US planes engaged in these operations had risen by 50%, the Belarusian Defense Ministry specified.