General Staff: Nearly 11,000 Russian soldiers on training grounds in Belarus

There are 11,000 Russian personnel and more than 400 units of their military equipment at the moment at the Belarusian training grounds.

This was announced by the Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff, Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov, who spoke at a Kyiv briefing, Ukrinform reports.

"The situation along the state border of Ukraine with the Republic of Belarus remains controlled and stable. The enemy continues to increase its training level, conducting training on Belarusian grounds, where there are currently up to 11,000 personnel and more than 400 units of weaponry and military equipment of the occupying power. Today, the group of Russian troops deployed in Belarus, the Bryansk and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation is half the number of the grouping that was used for the attack on Kyiv in February of this year — 22,000 against 45,500," Hromov said.

He also noted that even in the case of the involvement of all combat Belarusian military units from among the ground forces and special operations forces, the joint grouping will amount to about 30,000.

According to Hromov, today Russia has removed from Belarusian territory all stocks of ammunition for artillery systems and MLRS, which were created in the interests of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the eve of the invasion on Ukraine.

Hromov added that Minsk has limited opportunities to supply the offensive grouping of troops with ammunition from its own territory.

"The prospects for the involvement of the Belarusian forces in the war in Ukraine directly depend on the ability of the Russian forces to advance in the Donetsk direction, as well as on the activity of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," Hromov emphasized.

At the same time, the Russian Federation is expanding its control over the military airfields of Belarus, and work is underway on setting up additional equipment at the Machulyshchi, Baranovichi, and Luninets airfields. In particular, it is planned to turn Machulyshchi into a key hub for the needs of the Russian forces.

As reported by Ukrinform, on December 27, the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, Andriy Demchenko, stated that the border guards do not currently record the creation of an offensive group in Belarus, which would be ready to carry out an invasion.