The CNS explained why Russia and Belarus hold common exercises

Russia has long considered the territory of its neighbouring country Belarus as its own, disregarding its borders, sovereignty, history, and opposition. Since the beginning of the war, Belarus has been used by Russia as a platform for military operations, and the formal leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has repeatedly repeated the Kremlin's narratives and advocated the suppression of the Ukrainian resistance by force.

However, as the National Resistance Centre of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine pointed out, Russia also has far-reaching plans regarding the army of Belarus. They noted that from 27 to 31 May, they conducted training of the air force jointly with the Russian army.

According to the centre, these exercises "in fact had the purpose of integration, or rather absorption of the remnants of the Belarusian army by the Russians".

The CNS reported that the Russian-Belarusian exercises involved aviation military units, units of anti-aircraft missile and radio-technical troops of Belarus, crews of reconnaissance, fighter and army aviation of the Air and Space Forces of the Russian Armed Forces.

One of the tasks was to practice the control of heterogeneous forces of aviation, as well as the organisation of interaction in the performance of combat training tasks," noted in the CNS.

Note that in early May, the Ministry of Defence of Belarus reported on the beginning of a surprise inspection of means - carriers of non-strategic nuclear weapons. In addition, the Security Council of the country noted that Belarus would check the combat readiness of the armed forces of the state with the use of means capable of using tactical nuclear projectiles.