MINSK, December 22. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he observed that neighboring countries are ready for possible aggression against the republic.
"We cannot rule out that aggression may be unleashed against our country. At least, we see such readiness on the part of our neighbors. We are aware who is prodding <...> these very neighbors so that they create tensions on our borders," the Belarusian leader said at a meeting with the military and security forces following the testing of the state response system on Thursday, according to the SB. Belarus Today news outlet.
According to the Belarusian president, this triggered a decision to test the immediate response force. "Our army has what’s called immediate response forces. If something unexpectedly [happens] then these forces during a certain time period are put on alert and sent to the site where tensions exist. I made the decision to test these immediate response forces," Lukashenko explained.
According to him, the second part of the inspection involved counterterrorism actions, the president also noted that this was not the army’s but the KGB’s purview which organizes such operations and oversees them engaging the necessary means and forces. "This is the second direction which has been recently worked on. A counterterrorist operation and the deployment of the immediate response forces in the event of a sudden attack on our soil. We were supposed to take control of various directions and march out. Locations were determined where units would be deployed, go into action, reconquer and return. As of today, these operations have been completed. Both the armed forces, the forces of special operations and special units are at their permanent deployment locations," Lukashenko said.
On December 7, the State Secretariat of the Security Council of Belarus reported the launch of an inspection of the state response system to acts of terrorism. It was noted that during the inspection it was planned to move military equipment and personnel from the national security forces, temporarily restrict the movement of residents and private transportation along certain public roads and areas and use simulated destructive agents for training purposes.