Zapad 2017

The Russian MoD's collage for the Zapad 2017 exercise
The leaders of the exercise; Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and his Belarusian counterpart Oleg Belokonev

Zapad 2017 (Russian: «Запад-2017», Belarusian: Захад-2017, lit. West 2017) was a joint strategic military exercise of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and Belarus (the Union State) that formally began on 14 September 2017 and ended on 20 September 2017, in Belarus as well as in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Russia's other north-western areas in the Western Military District. According to the information made public by the Defence Ministry of Belarus prior to the exercise,[1][2] fewer than 13,000 personnel of the Union State were to take part in the military maneuvers, a number that was not supposed to trigger mandatory formal notification and invitation of observers under the OSCE's Vienna Document.[3]

Prior to the exercise, Western military analysts and officials cited the total number of Russian troops, security personnel and civilian officials to be involved in the broader war-games as being up to 100,000,[4] which would make them Russia's largest since the Cold War.[5] However, Western analysis after the drills put the troops number estimate significantly closer to the officially announced figures,[6][7][8] with Thomas Möller, a Swedish officer observing the exercise, reporting only 12,400 troops present, slightly less than the Belarus claim of 12,700.[9] Since 2016, concerns had been voiced by a number of NATO and Ukrainian officials over Russia's suspected ulterior motives and objectives in connection with the exercise.[10][11]

  1. ^ Глава Минобороны Белоруссии: учение "Запад-2017" не направлено против третьих стран. ТАСС (in Russian). 2017-07-17.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference detailsunv was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Russia’s biggest war game in Europe since the cold war alarms NATO The Economist, 10 August 2017.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference concern was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Russia Plans Huge Zapad 2017 Military Exercises With Belarus NBC NEWS, 2 August 2017.
  6. ^ Mathieu Boulègue. Five Things to Know About the Zapad-2017 Military Exercise Chatham House, 25 September 2017.
  7. ^ Mary Dejevsky. Russia was the target of Nato's own fake news The Independent, 22 September 2017
  8. ^ Russia just finished the Zapad military exercises that freaked out NATO — Here's what we know Business Insider, 25 September 2017.
  9. ^ Goncharenko, Roman (27 September 2017). "Zapad-2017: 'Normal military business'". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 23 November 2017. What the Belarus verification agency reported – 12,700 Russian and Belarus soldiers – is a correct number I think. In Sweden we are conducting a similar exercise at the moment. The media talks of about 19- 20,000 participants. We reported about 12,400.
  10. ^ What are Russia's Zapad war games? DW, 14 July 2017.
  11. ^ Will Russia occupy Belarus in 2017? 29 November 2016.