The joint military exercise Zapad, planned by Russia and Belarus this fall, should not cause any additional concern as Lithuania and its allies are also training and preparing for possible threats, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.
“This is nothing new as these are things that happen all the time. These exercises are held all the time to demonstrate their strength, and we are not afraid of that strength as we hold our own exercises with our allies,” Nausėda told journalists on Thursday.
“We don’t need to worry about what those aggressors think behind the eastern border. We cannot get into their heads, or hearts if they have them at all, but we need to worry about what we can do ourselves and with our allies,” he added.
In its 2024 hostile information environment report, published on Thursday, the Lithuanian army says that the joint Russia-Belarus army drills could see an increase in disinformation this year.
The Zapad exercise is scheduled for September and has been held every two years since 2009. Its official objectives are to practice joint defensive and offensive actions, improve cooperation between the armed forces, and test the readiness of the troops for different scenarios.
However, this exercise has always raised concerns among officials in countries bordering Russia and Belarus about the risk of unintentional incidents.
The joint drills did not take place in 2023. British intelligence said at the time that the likely reason for the cancellation was the Russian army’s lack of troops and equipment, as well as the Russian leadership’s reluctance to be criticised for routine demonstrative manoeuvres in the context of the war in Ukraine.
In 2021, the exercise involved Russian troops and those of its ally Belarus, as well as some other countries. It was one of the largest military exercises in recent years.
In 2022, Belarus and Russia held a major joint military exercise, which started two weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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