Belarus planning military exercise near Ukrainian border
MINSK. June 3 (Interfax) - Belarus intends to tighten border controls in the southern direction, a report posted on the Belarusian Defense Ministry website says.
"Two companies of the 38th independent mobile brigade of the special operations' section of the Armed Forces have been alerted in the framework of an inspection of the reinforcement of border protection in the southern direction. They will advance along the Brest-Gomel route and be placed at the disposal of the State Committee for Border Protection with the purpose of reinforcing the protection of the state border in the southern direction," the report says.
It also notes that the headquarters of territorial defense and a rifle company of territorial troops is being established in the town of Yelsk.
"With this purpose the district military enlistment office is calling up servicemen from reserves to these units. Organizational training will be conducted with units of territorial troops in the next few days. Later there will be a headquarters exercise with Gomel regional territorial defense bodies to practice actions of territorial troops," the ministerial press service notes.
The key tasks of territorial defense are the security of key facilities, the fulfillment of individual combat tasks together with units of the Armed Forces, resistance to saboteur forces and illegal armed formations and involvement in guarding sections of the Belarusian state border.
Belarus started forming the system of territorial defense in 2001. Practical actions of territorial troops were drilled for the first time in 2002 during the Berezina-2002 tactical exercise in the Borisov district.
"International developments of the past few years have confirmed the correctness of the decisions we made then," the Defense Ministry said.