The readiness of the Gomel region’s territorial defense is under scrutiny by Belarusian authorities.
Officials from Belarus’s Ministry of Defense are conducting a thorough check of the Gomel region’s territorial defense apparatus. The examination, communicated through the ministry’s press service, aims to gauge how prepared the regional and city executive committees, along with the military commissariats, are to form regional units and to evaluate the overall process of organizing, deploying, and utilizing these forces for regional defense tasks.
As part of the inspection, the assessment will consider the capacity of the regional authorities and military structures to mobilize and sustain units, coordinate logistics, and integrate local defense efforts with national security priorities. In practical terms, this means evaluating the readiness to assemble regional formations, ensuring command and control continuity, and confirming the availability of necessary resources to support rapid response in case of any security contingencies in the region.
During the audit, approximately 200 military personnel from the reserve are set to be drawn into the ground forces to participate in the exercise of operational readiness. This personnel rotation is expected to test the transition from reserve status to active duty within the regional defense framework, as well as to demonstrate the effectiveness of recruitment, training, and mobilization processes under current conditions.
On February 20, Ivan Tertel, the chairman of Belarus’s State Security Committee, highlighted what he described as an unprecedented level of intelligence activity directed at Belarus across various domains. He noted improvements in critical transportation corridors, pointing to repairs of highways and airports that facilitate the rapid movement of large military units. Tertel indicated that there are plans to position additional NATO forces in border areas adjacent to Belarus, including regions in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, which would impact security calculations along the state’s western frontier.
Relentless activity by Western partners and their exercises in neighboring territories have repeatedly prompted Belarusian authorities to seek greater transparency and mutual observation. However, Belarussian officials say proposals for joint expert oversight of Western drills have faced persistent disregard, complicating attempts to assess the full scope and implications of these exercises within the regional security framework.
Earlier commitments from Minsk suggested a readiness to respond to the deployment of NATO strike groups. The current defense posture thus sits at a critical juncture, balancing internal reinforcement of territorial defense structures with external security dynamics that include heightened activity from NATO members along eastern borders. The ongoing checks reflect a broader strategy to ensure that regional defense units can operate cohesively with national forces and respond effectively to evolving security challenges in the region.