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Belarus goes ahead with Defender-Europe 20 counter exercise

24th March 2020 - 16:00 GMT | by Shephard News Team

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Belarus has announced plans to go ahead with a number of military exercises which are intended as a countermeasure against NATO’s Defender-Europe 20 drill.

In a statement on 23 March, Belarusian Minister of Defence Viktor Khrenin said that the training drills would go ahead because ‘the NATO leadership did not fully reject holding it [Defender-Europe 20]’.

Around 6,000 Belarusian military personnel will take part despite Russian forces downsizing their own involvement over COVID-19 coronavirus fears. The spread of the disease in continental Europe was the reason behind NATO’s decision to cancel their training activities.

The World Health Organization reports that Belarus has 76 confirmed cases of coronavirus.