Belarusian Man On Military Training: Many Curse When Looking At All This

An honest story about the problems in the Belarusian army.

On February 8, the Ministry of Defense reported that the first groups of servicemen called up due to summonses had already left for military units for “combat coordination” as part of subdivisions.

Siarhei was taken to the Brest region, Belsat reports. They reported that they were sending him to military training in the territorial defense forces. There he was changed into uniforms and sent to the location of those liable for military service. There were about 200 people at the training with the man. Each of them had business, work, and family at home. Some were taken to the training without warning, right from their workplace.

“Many curse when looking at all this, but they do not complain openly — they are afraid. They do not discuss politics. For several days they were not particularly bothered, they were given time to adapt, and then it began — we slept for several hours. Many got sick almost immediately. Then they started brainwashing: “They want to capture us, but we will not surrender, we are here to show them all.” Mostly, the men just sit and silently listen to the ideologist. Although everyone understands: these training sessions are because of the war in Ukraine. But there are a couple of ardent Lukashenka supporters. They, together with the Russians, are ready to protect us from the Ukrainians. You start asking them questions, saying things like “they didn’t attack us,” but they just have mush in their heads. It’s better not to contact them, because after the training session I want to go home, and not go to jail because of “politics.”

According to the interlocutor, everything is boring with the equipment at the training sessions. Mostly, it’s very old and broken. Most of the equipment stalls after 5-10 km. Of the armored equipment, by the feel of it, 10-15% is in normal working order.

“One guy posted a photo of our location, and now everyone is being watched,” says the interlocutor. “Whoever posted it is facing punishment. We don’t know yet what it will be. They took him away somewhere. They set up a jammer not far from us. There is practically no Internet or cell phone service there.”

As Siarhei said, it is planned that under the guidance of instructors, conscripts will study reconnaissance techniques, fighting from a trench, throwing training grenades, and combat movement tactics:

“It’s hard to imagine for now. I only see chaos and disorganization — both during training and even during transportation to the unit. They only said that, as usual, they won’t spare the bullets. We will shoot from a Makarov pistol and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.”

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