The Russian military's presence in Belarus has increased greatly in size from its original deployments since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Russian military has been accused of assisting in the crackdown on the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests by supplying weapons and equipment to the Belarusian government and planning to invade the country in case the protests succeeded, and played a significant role in the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia currently maintains two military bases in Belarus, and is currently preparing to station tactical nuclear weapons in the country.
Following his victory in the 1994 Belarusian presidential election, Alexander Lukashenko began the process of militarily integrating Belarus and Russia as part of the Union State initiative, leading to a series of 1995 military agreements which provided two military bases to the Russian Armed Forces and gave them a role in guarding the Belarusian border. Belarus and Russia both partake in the Zapad exercises, and Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to intervene in the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests if he saw fit. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces in Belarus launched the Kyiv offensive, which was ultimately unsuccessful, in part due to Belarusian sabotage of rail connections between Belarus and Ukraine.