MINSK, December 13. /TASS/: Brest paratroopers and Grodno engineer brigade personnel are participating in the snap combat readiness inspection that kicked off in Belarus on Tuesday.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced on December 13 that a surprise combat readiness inspection had begun in the republic on an instruction from President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. The comprehensive measures running under the direction of the State Secretariat of the republic’s Security Council "are of a defensive nature and the inspection of military command centers and military formations is being carried out selectively, with troops being gradually involved in the check."
"An air assault battalion [of the 38th Brest Separate Guards Vienna Red Banner Air Assault Brigade] has gone on heightened alert in peacetime. The objectives are to advance to the designated area within the shortest time possible, organize the ground and provide protection and defense of vital facilities. Units of the 38th brigade are ready to accomplish missions in any environment," Brigade Commander Guards Colonel Dmitry Korshunov said in a live broadcast on the ONT Television Channel before sending the battalion to the area of accomplishing assigned tasks.
The press office of the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported earlier on Tuesday that the personnel of a pontoon bridge battalion of the 557th Slutsk-Warsaw Orders of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Alexander Nevsky Engineer Brigade had advanced to the Neman River to practice building a pontoon bridge. In November, the battalion was involved in pulling a pedestrian ferry across the Neman for the period of major repairs of an urban bridge in Grodno, the ministry said.
Brest paratroopers also participated in the previous snap combat readiness inspection in Belarus held by the State Secretariat of the republic’s Security Council on orders from the Belarusian president on October 11-12. At that time, in addition to the personnel of the 38th air assault brigade, the drills involved units of the 6th and 120th separate mechanized brigades, bringing together a total of about 500 troops and 50 items of military hardware. During the inspection, the troops practiced going on combat alert, conducting marches and deploying to designated areas for accomplishing combat training tasks.
