(Reuters) – A senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday that Belarus, a small ally of Russia on the border with Ukraine, has as many as 1.5 million potential military personnel outside its armed forces.
President Alexander Lukashenko has backed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in his year-old war with Ukraine, including allowing him to invade from Belarusian territory and allowing Russia to train newly mobilized forces in Belarus.
This month, Lukashenko ordered the formation of a new volunteer regional defense force of up to 150,000 personnel. He said his army would fight only if Belarus was attacked.
“The structures of the organizations, not the armed forces, will reach somewhere around 1.5 million people in the event that martial law is declared and the economy is transferred to war mode,” said Secretary of State to the Security Council Alexander. Vulvović, according to the state-run Belta news agency.
Latest updates
View 2 more stories
The population of Belarus is approximately 9.3 million. The country’s professional army has about 48,000 soldiers and about 12,000 government border forces, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ military balance for 2022.
(Reporting by Lydia Kelly from Melbourne); Edited by William Mallard
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
“Subtly charming student. Pop culture junkie. Creator. Amateur music specialist. Beer fanatic.”