President of Belarus and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed Union Resolve 2022

Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, and Army General Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, discussed the preparation and progress of the joint military exercise of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation Union Resolve 2022 and military and technical cooperation.
“We are conducting the exercise. Among other things we have agreed that we will choose a time for this exercise so as not to interfere with the national economy or agriculture. And to hold a major exercise in the south of Belarus. We discussed this topic twice with the President [of Russia – BelTA]. We have constantly been perfecting our plans. Thank you for organizing this exercise. We just need a little bit of time to redeploy troops from the Russian Federation. We have absolutely no problems here. Everything that has been planned from our side has been implemented. I think we will start the active phase of the exercise approximately on the 10th,” BelTA quotes the President of the Republic of Belarus as saying.
“Your arrival in Belarus will cause even more whining over there (but it is their problem); I would like to say what our main objective in this exercise is. Everybody noticed that we are transporting quite a lot of equipment from Russia to Belarus, including advanced equipment. As we have agreed with you, and with the President of Russia, it is very important for us that our military men not only see this equipment in a picture, but can also feel it with their own hands, so to say. So that together with their fellow Russians they could get used to this equipment. It is very important for us because practically all the equipment that will be here, we are planning to buy from you this year, or next year and so on. This is critical for our Union State in view of the behaviour demonstrated by both NATO and Ukraine which is striving to be a part of it. This is why we want to learn,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The President of the Republic of Belarus pointed out that advanced Russian equipment training centres are being set up jointly with the Russian Federation. “It was my request to you to set up centres to train using the state-of-the-art weapons here. Thank you for responding to it,” said the President.
As was noted at the meeting, which was also attended by Viktor Khrenin, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Belarus, three such centres have already been set up: two in the Russian Federation and one in the Republic of Belarus.