MINSK, August 12. /TASS/. NATO countries are using the joint Belarus-Russia drills dubbed Zapad-2025 (or West-2025) as an excuse to increase military activity near the countries' borders, said Valery Revenko, head of the Belarusian Defense Ministry’s Department for International Military Cooperation and the Belarusian defense chief’s defense cooperation assistant.
"The Zapad exercise is a routine part of the regional group of forces' joint training program. It was preceded by a range of activities held both in Belarus and Russia. However, as the drills draw near, Western countries, primarily the neighboring NATO member states, are showing growing aggression in their actions," he pointed out at a briefing.
According to Revenko, the West is using the Russia-Belarus drills as a pretext for continued military build-up and an increase in the number and scale of activities related to operational and combat training. "This is not the first instance of these happenings ahead of joint drills; this has already led to the deployment of NATO tactical groups to our neighboring countries, and their number continues to grow," the Belarusian official noted. In particular, the number of drills involving NATO forces and national armies, which are set to be held in August and September, has been increased from six to ten.
Revenko emphasized that in order to hide the goals of Western countries, some media outlets continue to paint the upcoming Zapad-2025 drills in a negative light in their reporting.